Holiday Season Catches a Rising Starship : 7th ‘Star Trek’ Blasts Off With $23.2 Million at Movie Box Office as Overall Sales Are Up 50% From Year Ago

“Star Trek: Generations” was rocketing ahead of the still-simmering “Interview With the Vampire” and “The Santa Clause” Sunday to lead a powerful box-office launch for the 1994 holiday movie season--up 50% or more from a year ago.

Overall tickets sales on the weekend that many consider the official start of the holiday movie season were estimated at close to $95 million, with the Thanksgiving weekend--traditionally one of the year’s best movie-going weekends--coming right up.

The No. 1 film--by several light years--was “Star Trek: Generations.” The seventh feature film in the intergalactic saga, and the first based on “The Next Generation” series spin-off, brought in die-hard fans as well as a new generation of Trekkers, soaring to an estimated $23.2 million on 2,659 screens in its first three days. It’s the best launch of any of the “Star Trek” films. Add another $3 million from Thursday night special previews on 1,300 screens, and Paramount Pictures is probably already drafting the script for the eighth episode.

The Starship Enterprise blasted “Interview With the Vampire.” After the fifth-largest debut weekend ever of $36.3 million, Tom Cruise and his merry band of bloodsuckers was drained of more than half its business, down to a projected $18.1 million, following the conventional pattern for horror movies.

But shed no tears for Lestat and Louis, since “Interview” has already sucked up $64 million in its first 10 days--although both first and second weekend grosses are the subject of some dispute in the industry. Still, “Vampire” should get an infusion over the Thanksgiving holiday. How it holds up over the long term, however, will be closely watched based on this weekend’s drop.

The weekend had begun resembling Noah’s Ark. There seemed to be two of every kind of film. But the results were more akin to Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Of the two Kris Kringle flicks, “The Santa Clause” and the debuting “Miracle on 34th Street,” the former is clearly the Uber-mensch.

After last weekend’s $19.3-million opening for “Santa Clause,” Tim Allen’s agents were already upping his asking price several million. And based on the $16.3 million done in the second weekend--more than $40 million in 10 days--the $100-million level for the film appears likely. That would end a long dry spell for Disney’s (non-animated) feature film division.

But “Miracle” would need one to save it from quick extinction. Despite a barrage of sneak previews the previous weekend, the John Hughes production opened to a grinch-like $2.7 million on 1,190 screens. After last summer’s debacle of “Baby’s Day Out,” many are wondering what happened to the Hughes of “Home Alone.”

In the animation wars, the reissue of “The Lion King” ate “The Swan Princess” for breakfast. After being withdrawn from theaters last summer, Disney’s “King” returned to his perch with $5.5 million over the weekend, taking in over $275 million. Now “The Lion King” will play tortoise and hare with “Forrest Gump” as both chug toward the phenomenal $300-million mark.

“Swan” got a frog caught in its throat with a wan $2.5-million opening, yet another casualty of Disney’s apparent lock on animation. (On Wednesday, “The Pagemaster,” featuring Macaulay Culkin combined with animation, will also enter dubious battle against “The Lion King.”)

The duel of gun-toters, “Pulp Fiction” and the debuting “The Professional,” was won by the latter from French director Luc Besson (“La Femme Nikita”). “The Professional” got off to an adequate start with $5.1 million on 1,158 screens, pumping some new lead into the action market. The long-running “Pulp,” however, only dropped to $3 million, proving there’s life in it yet. To date “Pulp” has grossed more than $48 million. Keenan Ivory Wayans’ gumshoe flick “Low Down Dirty Shame” joins them, starting Wednesday.

The other sci-fi movie, “Stargate,” took a hit from “Star Trek” but still managed a flight-worthy $4.4 million and has now grossed $52 million. But the other florid horror movie, “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” dropped out of the Top 10, taking in only $1.6 million, squeaking past the $20-million level after three weeks.

Depending on Sunday’s business, “The War” will do somewhere between $2.8 million to $3 million over the weekend--aided only a bit by the sneak previews of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pregnancy comedy “Junior” on Friday and Saturday night. “The War” has basically lost the battle with only about $13 million in three weeks.

Overall, the weekend box-office tally was far ahead of the comparable weekend last year, which had an approximate gross of $56.8 million. In 1992, the ticket take was $74.2 million--led by “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York,” which alone snagged $31.1 million.

In another notable debut this weekend, Zhang Yimou’s banned-in-China “To Live” arrived in two theaters in New York, garnering a strong $33,000.

Final weekend estimates will be released today.