8th Time a Charm for ‘Trek’ at Box Office

Resistance was futile.

A poorly reviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger comedy and week two of Michael Jordan and his cartoon pals were no match for the eighth “Star Trek” movie, “Star Trek: First Contact,” which rode rave reviews to an estimated first-weekend box-office total of $30.45 million--the biggest “Star Trek” opener by far.

Accounting for the big opening, Wayne Lewellen, Paramount’s president of distribution, credited positive reviews and fan familiarity with “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the TV series that spawned the current film. (The biggest previous opener, “Star Trek: Generations,” arrived on Nov. 18, 1994, and took in $23.1 million its first weekend.)

“It may be because this film is based on the [recent] TV characters only and the last film was a combination of [characters from] the old TV series and the one now,” Lewellen said Sunday. “I also think the reviews gave this film a lot of validity.”

Rick Berman, who has been involved with Paramount’s “Star Trek” franchise for nearly a decade and served as producer and co-writer of “First Contact” (as well as producer of the previous film), was a little more blunt.

“We made a better movie this time and the audience knows it. I think the reason is we had the best bad guys you could ever want in an action movie,” he said, referring to the brutal, high-tech Borg, for whom the catch phrase “resistance is futile” was crafted.

Lewellen and Berman said they both expected a $20-million opening for the film, which exhibitors said also benefited from strong word of mouth.

Runner-up “Space Jam” banked about $16.6 million, running its two-week total to $48.6 million despite a 40% drop from its debut weekend. Its teen audience was sapped by the “Star Trek” draw, and it lost some younger viewers to Schwarzenegger’s “Jingle All the Way,” which took in $12.2 million for fourth place, industry observers said.

Exhibitors expect “Space Jam” and “Jingle All the Way” to be hurt when Disney’s “101 Dalmatians” arrives on screens Wednesday.

“Look, this was the biggest comedy opening for Arnold ever,” said 20th Century Fox distribution head Tom Sherak. The film surpassed “Kindergarten Cop” ($11.2 million), “Twins” ($11.1 million) and the flop “Junior” ($9.8 million).

“In this marketplace, with the competition that’s out there, we’re thrilled with these numbers,” Sherak added. “This film is bringing in little kids and not Arnold’s typically older action audience. Those kids, by the way, are paying kid prices for tickets.”

The Mel Gibson thriller “Ransom” brought in $13.7 million for third place, running its three-week total to more than $86 million.

Elsewhere in the top 10, “The Mirror Has Two Faces” was fifth with $8.2 million; “Set It Off” was sixth with $3.4 million; “William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet” was seventh with $3.2 million; “The English Patient” was eighth with $2.7 million (in only 268 theaters, grossing more than $10,000 per theater); and “Sleepers” was ninth with $1.4 million. “First Wives Club,” in 10th place, took in $720,000, allowing it to pass $100 million in domestic gross.

Among new films in limited release, the critical rave “Shine,” from Fine Line Features, took in an estimated $164,000 in just seven theaters. The Emilio Estevez-directed “The War at Home” posted $16,000 in four theaters.