Greetings from the bridge of the Starship Movieline, where your Captain (in the "lhIngan jIH boq QIp" T-shirt, or Klingon for "I'm with stupid"), along with trusty communications officer Stuhura VanAirsdale and engineer Kyle "Bucky" Buchanan are embarking on a mission to boldly tell you how much dinero Paramount beamed out of Earthlings' pockets over the weekend. Set your mouse buttons to stun.
1. Star Trek
Gross: $76,500,000 (new)
Screens: 3,849 (PSA: $18,836)
Weeks: 1 (Change: n/a)
Despite featuring a cast of unknowns and dealing in material that's widely perceived as being weapons-grade getting-laid-repellent, J.J. Abrams' slick and smart new take on the pioneering sci-fi franchise coasted to first place with a healthy, if not staggering, $76.5 million -- far lower than our own Project-o-Tron's figures (damn thing's been buggy lately), but towards the upper end of Paramount expectations. It's certainly enough for the studio to fire blasters on what will be the first of many William Shatner-free sequels, ensuring the decorated Federation veteran will have something to complain about on his YouTube show well into his 90s and beyond.
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Gross: $27,000,000 (cume: $129,624,000)
Screens: 4,102 (PSA: $6,582)
Weeks: 2 (Change: -68.3%)
The mutant chronicle took a sizable stumble in its second week, as fickle fanboydom had long since moved on to the next pointy-eyebrowed species on their summer checklist.
3. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Gross: $10,450,000 (cume: $30,246,000)
Screens: 3,175 (PSA: $3,291)
Weeks: 2 (Change: -32.2%)
Positioning itself as the programming antidote to moviegoers not keen on high-octane space parables, Matthew McConaughey's latest romcom took in a robust $10.5 million. This was due in small part to the contribution of male Hollywood assistants, who had so much fun with Ryan Reynolds at The Proposal, they kept texting him until he agreed to accompany them to this one. He totally gets to choose the next one, however, and it's going to be a football movie or something with a lot of angry soldiers and severed limbs.
4. Obsessed
Gross: $6,600,000 (cume: $56,247,000)
Screens: 2,602 (PSA: $2,537)
Weeks: 3 (Change: -45.2%)
Yes, Obsessed is still dug into the top five harder than Beyoncé's French manicure tips into Ali Larter's Idris-hungry eyeballs.
5. 17 Again
Gross: $4,405,000 (cume: $54,167,000)
Screens: 1,138 (PSA: $3,515)
Weeks: 4 (Change: -30.8%)
To celebrate the one-month anniversary of Zac Efron being an above-the-title megastar, we thought we'd revisit some formative moments. In this scene from Firefly, the confidence with which 11-year-old Zac delivers Joss Whedon's nerd-gibberish dialogue suggests great things were yet to come.
[Data: Box Office Mojo]