J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness opened with $3.25 million from Wednesday night (and Thursday midnight) showings.  While Abrams’ second Trek movie is off to a good start overseas where it has earned $40 million in limited release and is running about 70% ahead of Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek, STID’s Wednesday late night showings were less than stellar.  In fact their gross was almost identical with that of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby last Thursday. Opening STID nationwide on Thursday rather than Friday appears to have put a damper on the film’s midnight debut sales, but those Wednesday night sales cut into Iron Man 3’s take enough to make The Great Gatsby the #1 box office movie on Wednesday.
 
Still, analysts are predicting that Star Trek Into Darkness will easily take the coming weekend box office crown.  STID managed to snag about 80% of the pre-sales of movie tickets on Fandango this week, and Paramount is modestly predicting an $80 million take over the 4-day weekend, while other analysts are expecting the Thursday-through-Sunday take for the $190 million Star Trek Into Darkness will reach $100 million.
 
With a solid critical rating of 86% positive on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Star Trek Into Darkness should prove to be formidable competition for Iron Man 3, which is poised to surpass the $1 billion market in worldwide theatrical box office today (Thursday).