Star Trek Star Shares What Went Wrong With The Movies, How To Save The Franchise

Chris Pine, who appeared in three Star Trek movies, weighed in on the franchise's future as fans wait for the fourth movie. Looking back at the trilogy, the actor said they chased the wrong audience.

Pine played Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) and Star Trek Beyond (2016). Paramount Plus' Star Trek trilogy was a success at the box office and received positive reviews from the critics. The first movie grossed $257,730,019. However, there was a significant drop at the box office in the next two movies, with the sequel making $228,778,661 and the third one only $158,848,340. Weighing on how the movies performed, Pine felt that as they progressed with the trilogy, the studio chased the wrong audience and was not after the diehard Trekkies.

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Pine discussed his Star Trek experience at the ACE Superhero Comic Con 2024. Weighing on what went wrong in the trilogy despite the positive reception, Pine felt that the subsequent films were after the wrong audience. "It was always about getting the audience and building the audience." Pine said, per Popverse. "I think what we've found is that we've captured an audience with the Trek Universe that may not have come to us, but generally speaking, it's the diehards. I think we should make films that appeal to people who want to see the film. I'm sick of trying to please people who don't want to see what we do."

The actor believed that among the issues was the budget going out of control. When it comes to box office expectations, studios tend to spend more because they overshoot. He added that in the industry, it takes $500 million to produce a film that people like, and for it to be deemed successful, it had to make tons of money, multiple times the production budget. For him, the metrics don't make sense. When asked how to possibly produce Star Trek 4, Pine suggested delivering better stories on smaller budgets, especially since the franchise already has a fanbase. He explained, "I think we just make a much smaller film that's more story-driven, more character-based, there's less shit exploding, and maybe do it that way. Also shoot it on film, not digital. And then you have the fanbase. The fanbase has always been very kind to me. Obviously, there's the trolls that lurk on the internet that hate everything, but generally I think people really liked [Star Trek]."

Pine's suggestion may help materialize the long-awaited Star Trek 4. It has been eight years since Paramount Plus dropped the last movie, and fans are still hopeful about seeing another film. Pine's remark made sense because as J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies went bigger, the returns dipped. Abrams directed the first two films. Star Trek was produced on a $150 million budget, while Star Trek Beyond had a $190 million budget. However, the second one's gross was nearly $30 million less. The third movie, directed by Justin Lin, had a production budget of $185 million but only grossed $158 million. Despite its performance at the box office, Star Trek Beyond was No. 4 in the Rotten Tomatoes' ranking of Star Trek movies with an 86% rating. A high budget doesn't guarantee a high-quality movie, but it gives the production more flexibility to create better visuals. However, what Pine probably meant was that they didn't need to spend half a billion to deliver a fun, beautiful and outstanding sci-fi movie. With the right plot, strong storyline and good timing of humor and action that appeal to the right audience, the next Star Trek could be a huge success. And, yeah, Pine could probably be right about the budget.

Star Trek movies stream on Paramount Plus.

Source: Popverse