Despite early polling data showing a distinct lack of enthusiasm toward the Star Trek movie reboot by J. J. Abrams (Lost, Alias, Cloverfield, Fringe, Felicity), the film had an excellent opening weekend at the U.S. movie box office.
The film took in an estimated $72.5 million over the weekend. Even when adjusted for inflation, that’s far more than any of the previous Star Trek movies took in.
This has cultural significance beyond the fortunes of the Star Trek franchise and its studio. As I noted in writing about an Abrams interview last fall, Abrams said “he was drawn to the idealism behind the franchise. He hopes to make a more optimistic point of view as popular as the somewhat bleak vision of The Dark Knight was.”
The story noted that Abrams explicitly intended to move the American culture in a different direction:
AP reports Abrams as saying, “In a world where a movie as incredibly produced as ‘The Dark Knight‘ is raking in gazillions of dollars, ‘Star Trek’ stands in stark contrast. It was important to me that optimism be cool again.”
He has achieved the crucial first part of that goal, making a film that expresses that vision and getting audiences to fill theaters to see it.
—S. T. Karnick, editor of The American Culture