‘Star Trek Beyond’ voyages to the top of the domestic box office

Weekend Box Office July 22-24, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) - Fifty years after Gene Roddenberry’s television series made its debut, “Star Trek Beyond” finds itself atop the domestic box office charts with an opening weekend estimated at $59.6 million. That’s down from the $69 million opening weekend “Star Trek into Darkness,” but higher than many had predicted. With an additional $30 million abroad, the film is already halfway to earning back its budget. Solid reviews and enthusiastic fans going back for multiple viewings should propel “Beyond” to a decent box office total.

In second place is the animated holdover “The Secret Life of Pets” with $29.3 million. The $75 million film has now earned a very healthy $260.7 million in America alone. Don’t expect “Finding Dory” numbers, but at this point everyone at Universal has to be pleased with the film’s success.

The next three slots are essentially a logjam at $21 million between “Ghostbusters,” “Lights Out” and “Ice Age: Collision Course.”

That’s an OK second weekend for “Ghostbusters,” as the reboot has earned nearly $87 million domestically. I would guess that a U.S. total of $150 million would be considered a success and the film has a chance of getting there. The real question is how the film will do abroad and whether or not it can get released in China, where there are strict censorship laws regarding ghosts in movies.

For “Lights Out,” $21 million is an unmitigated success. With a budget reported to be around $5 million, the horror film starring Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello has already justified its existence and probably has Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema thinking about a sequel. Throw in an additional $8 million from overseas and the numbers look all the more attractive.

Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox have to be a little concerned about the numbers “Ice Age: Collision Course” failed to bring in over the weekend. Previous entries in the franchise earned at least $41 million in their opening frames. The good news is that the film has already opened in multiple markets around the world and has amassed a worldwide total that currently sits around $155 million. A poor showing in the U.S. isn’t the doomsday note that it once was.