As the May 8th debut nears for Paramount’s rebooting of its Star Trek franchise with the new $150 million film directed by J.J. Abrams, positive buzz is building for the film, which focuses on the budding careers of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy and serves as a prequel of sorts to the original TV series. 

 

The new Star Trek movie will likely need all this buzz and its $50 in partner promotions that include Kellogg's affable Tony the Tiger, Burger King's pesky faux “Royalty,” and Esurance’s animated Erin, because it debuts just a week after Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the summer season’s first blockbuster, which targets a similar audience and will not have exhausted its appeal after just one week in the theaters.  Paramount can take heart in the fact that advance online ticket sales for Star Trek are running 25% ahead of those for Wolverine (see “Wolverine, Trek Pix Tix Flying”), but that could reflect just the hardcore Trekker audience, and both Star Trek and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are going to have to appeal to mainstream moviegoers if they hope to turn a profit.

 

Certainly J.J. Abrams and his writing cohorts Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof, faced one of the most daunting tasks in the history of cinema resurrections.  Star Trek, with the notable exception of The Wrath of Khan, had always been better on the small screen anyway, and the Star Trek movies, which got off to an inauspicious start with Star Trek: The Motion(less) Picture in 1979, ended with a whimper with Star Trek Nemesis in 2002, which earned only $43 million domestically and caused critic Roger Ebert (and many fans) to conclude that the property “was out of gas.”

 

If the early reviews are to be believed, Abrams and company have accomplished the Herculean task of reviving the Star Trek franchise.  All 14 reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes site are positive, and they range from a hard headed commercially-oriented rave from Variety’s Todd McCarthy to the marinated-in-geekdom musings of Ain’t It Cool’s uber-nerd Harry Knowles, who began his review with “God bless J.J. Abrams,” and went on to speculate that the new Trek film will appeal to a wide audience., “If you’ve ever loved anything about Star Trek, you’re gonna love this," Knowles said.  And most likely, if you’ve never loved Star Trek, you’re about to. This film truly has the potential to win over an awful lot of folks that have thought Star Trek was Wagon Train in space.”

 

McCarthy was no less positive, enthusing in his opening paragraph in Variety, “Blasting onto the screen at warp speed and remaining there for two hours, the new and improved Star Trek will transport fans to sci-fi nirvana. Faithful enough to the spirit and key particulars of Gene Roddenberry’s original conception to keep its torchbearers happy but, more crucially, exciting on its own terms in a way that makes familiarity with the franchise irrelevant, J.J. Abrams’ smart and breathless space adventure feels like a summer blockbuster that just couldn’t stay in the box another month”

 

McCarthy concludes, “Paramount won’t need any economic stimulus package with all the money it’ll rake in with this one globally.”

 

To take full advantage of the opportunity presented by its new Trek film, Paramount shifted its debut from December to May and rounded up $50 million in partner promotions that should provide the new Star Trek with plenty of media visibility.  Verizon and Burger King shot TV commercials on the film’s sets, and Kellogg's is planning a major print ad campaign with Tony the Tiger flashing the "Live Long and Prosper" sign, plus in-store displays, in-box prizes, and more than 100-million Trek-themed packages of cereals and snack foods.  Burger King is keeping its commercials under wraps, but it will be giving away collector cups and including Trek toys in its kids’ meals.  Verizon is planning a multi-media effort in conjunction with Nokia, and the Finnish phone giant is taking its Trek campaign worldwide. 

 

Add in generous helpings of licensed Star Trek movie merchandise (see “CBS Reveals New Star Trek Licenses”), that includes comics from IDW, toys from Playmates, Barbie Dolls from Mattel, and trading cards from Rittenhouse Archives, and the new Star Trek film is beginning to look like it might have the makings of an old school summer movie season juggernaut.