Star Trek Beyond Mexico Premiere Photocall (Photo : Getty Images)
“Star Trek Beyond” has an accumulated box office earnings of $131.1 million, boosted largely by its $31.3 million debut in China over the weekend. The film was shown in 6,526 theaters in China, seven weeks after it premiered in the U.S.
The good box office earnings of the sci-fi film is due to Chinese investments from Alibaba and Huahua Media which initiated a targeted promo campaign for the movie. For instance, stars of the film such as Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto participated in “Happy Camp,” a popular variety show in China which devoted an entire episode to “Star Trek Beyond.”
It helped that the hosts of “Happy Camp” – couple Nie Na and Zhang Jie – have a combined 120 million followers on Weibo. To further promote the movie, Zhang sang its theme song in Chinese and appeared at Comic-Con in San Diego in July.
The good performance of “Star Trek Beyond” came amid a slump in China’s summer box office, reported Deadline. Although “Jason Bourne” and “Ice Age: Collision Course” logged significant increases in box office last week, this week it dropped 92 percent and 86 percent, respectively.
Variety reported that “Star Trek Beyond’s” China debut is 107 percent higher compared to when “Star Trek Into Darkness” was shown in 2013 and is 30 percent higher compared to “Jason Bourne.”
Besides China, “Star Trek Beyond” opened with a $1.7 million receipt in Brazil and $1.4 million in Venezuela. After China, the film earned $20 million in UK and $15 million in Germany.
