As expected Angels & Demons took the weekend box office crown with an estimated $48 million opening, but J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek stole a lot of the limelight with a strong second weekend performance that saw just a 43% decline as the new Trek film brought in an estimated $43 million. 

Angels’ opening was 38% smaller than the Da Vinci Code, which was also based on a Dan Brown ecclesiastical thriller and bowed to $77.1 million in 2006, but then the Da Vinci Code novel generated more controversy and sold more than twice as many copies as Angels & Demons.  Angels & Demons drew an older crowd, with a full 50% of the moviegoers over 30, and the film earned more than twice as much overseas as it did in the U.S.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): May 15-17

While Angels’ domestic debut was less than overwhelming, thanks to Trek’s strong legs and solid performances from the rest of the top ten (none of which dropped even 50%) the total gross for the weekend was up 5% from last year.  So far the 2009 summer movie season is off to a tremendous start.  Taken together the first three weekends of the current summer season have posted a potent 16% gain over last year.

Star Trek, which has earned $147.6 million in its first ten days in theaters, should surpass Wolverine sometime later this week to become the highest grossing film of 2009 so far.  It is already the highest grossing Star Trek film, though it is only #6 in terms of the number of admissions.  Still, it appears that the new Star Trek film has the kind of “legs” that will allow to become #1 in admissions as well, and it now looks like it's the film to beat in the battle for summer box office supremacy—at least domestically.  Depending on how well it performs in the face of competition from Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the new Trek film could end up making over $250 million, and possibly even break the $300 million mark. 

Trek’s second week decline was even less than that of the equally well-reviewed Iron Man, which cleared the $300 million hurdle last year, but it’s way too early to crown a 2009 box office champ--the new Trek film is about to lose one of its key revenue sources, the IMAX theaters that have accounted for 12% of its gross so far.  Star Trek’s second weekend IMAX grosses were down just 20% to $5.1 million, which eclipsed the Dark Knight’s old sophomore session mark of $4.7 million, but starting next Friday Star Trek is about to due to lose its IMAX screens to the new Night at the Museum movie.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine dropped just 44% in its third frame earning an estimated $14.8 million and bringing its domestic cumulative to $151.7 million.  After a steep 68% decline during its sophomore session, Wolverine posted much better numbers in its third weekend, but the next two weekends will determine if the latest X-Men film has a chance to break $200 million domestically. Overseas the film has brought in nearly $144.5 million, compared to just $70 million for Star Trek.  Wolverine and Trek became the sixth and seventh films to earn more than $140 million at the U.S. box office so far in 2009.  At this point in 2008 only two films, Iron Man and Horton Hears a Who had accomplished the same feat.