First, the good news for Star Trek Beyond: the film has landed top of the US box office in its first week. Now, the not-so-great news (so far, at least): that $59.6 million studio-estimated opening puts it behind both the 2009 first new Trek and 2013's Into Darkness.
Still, as it hit the upper level of expectations, Beyond managed to make triple what either of the week's new arrivals could take in. It remains to be seen how successful the movie has been overseas before the final judgement has come in in terms of sequels, but it seems producer J.J. Abrams , Bad Robot and Paramount are already seriously considering the fourth effort.
And the newcomers couldn't crack the top three, with The Secret Life Of Pets and the new Ghostbusters shuffling down one place to make room for the new arrival. Pets continues to be a strong performer, even with a new animated animal movie in the market (more on that in a minute), adding $29.3 million for a healthy current total of $260.7 million in the States after three weeks on release. Ghostbusters, meanwhile, dropped 53% (not bad by any means) with an additional $21.6 million, which means its domestic total is creeping towards the $100 million mark after two weeks in the charts.
Fourth went to the first of this week's new arrivals, horror movie Lights Out. It was almost in a dead heat with the spirit-catching team, earning $21.6 million, which means that it could well swap places when the final figures come in tomorrow. And given its budget – a skimpy $4.9 million – it's already pretty much in profit. Good news for producer James Wan and director David F. Sandberg on whose short the film is based. In fifth, we find Ice Age: Collision Course, with that $21 million opening representing a definite slump in earning power. Considering that the previous film, Continental Drift, launched to $46.6 million, we could be seeing the final melting of the franchise. Still, five entries isn't bad.
Also on the animated front, Finding Dory fell to sixth from fourth, but still earned $7.2 million. The movie has made more than $781.6 million worldwide so far and given that it still has to open here and elsewhere, it seems destined to join the Billion Dollar Club. The Legend Of Tarzan was seventh on $6.4 million, while comedy Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates swiped $4.4 million in eighth.
At ninth we find Hillary's America: The Secret History Of The Democratic Party, which made £3.7 million and finally The Infiltrator, which took in $3.2 million.