Ranking Star Trek Movies By How Much They Made At The Box Office

Space may be the final frontier for humanity to venture into, but somewhere even more important for "Star Trek" features is the movie theater. Here is where audiences experience new adventures starring beloved captains, admirals, and assorted crew members with countless other strangers, all bonded over the emotions that only "Star Trek" can deliver. This realm is also where box office receipts are collected, a critical factor in determining the course trajectory of the "Star Trek" franchise. Dating back to the days of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" becoming a big enough success to spawn several sequels, dollars and cents have played as big a part in determining the future of "Star Trek" as anything else in this eternal saga.

Ranking the "Star Trek" movies by how much money they grossed at the worldwide box office, from lowest to highest-grossing, it becomes clearer than ever why certain entries in this series took off like a rocket with general audiences while others just sank like a stone and nearly capsized the entire franchise. Given that these movies have been released over multiple decades, this practice also gives one a peek into box office trends of different eras. Most importantly, though, breaking down the reasons the most lucrative "Star Trek" titles were so successful is bound to make one further appreciate the specific joys "Star Trek" has been unleashing for so long now.

The "Star Trek" film series was coming off a box office high note with "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," and "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" hoped to keep the good times rolling. Paramount's renewed confidence in this saga was reaffirmed by scheduling "Star Trek V" for release in the heart of summertime, instead of the Thanksgiving launch of "The Voyage Home." Unfortunately, "The Final Frontier" ended up coming up short on box office expectations with only $70.2 million worldwide, down 45% from the global box office gross of "The Voyage Home" and the lowest-grossing "Star Trek" title up to that point.

The biggest issue "The Final Frontier" faced was its release date. This "Star Trek" entry wasn't just opening in the summertime, it was opening in June 1989. The summer of 1989 was a famously crowded corridor that saw "The Final Frontier" opening right after "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" and directly before the debuts of "Ghostbusters II" and "Batman." With all these heavyweight franchises to contend with, it's no wonder "The Final Frontier" got lost in the shuffle. Downright negative critical reviews also didn't help, especially since this installment was coming off the well-liked "The Voyage Home." Though not a total box office failure, "The Final Frontier" brought the "Star Trek" series back down to Earth after a big boost in financial clout.

In modern discussions about the "Star Trek" movies, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" tends to be talked about in the same manner as "The Empire Strikes Back" or "The Godfather Part II" as a sequel that vastly surpasses its predecessor. Given this reputation, it's shocking to remember that "The Wrath of Khan" is one of the lower-grossing "Star Trek" movies worldwide. Just because it's not as lucrative as other "Star Trek" features, though, doesn't mean "The Wrath of Khan" was a total wipeout financially.

In its entire box office run, "The Wrath of Khan" managed to score $95.8 million worldwide, a 30% drop from the global gross of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." Much of this appears to be due to international grosses, as "The Wrath of Khan" only decreased from its predecessor by 5% domestically but was down a staggering 70% from the first movie globally. Perhaps the novelty of seeing the "Star Trek" characters on the big screen had just worn off for moviegoers in these territories by the time "The Wrath of Khan" rolled around. Still, solid domestic grosses and positive reviews ensured that "Star Trek II" was nowhere near the end of the road for the Enterprise crew at the movies.

With "Star Trek: First Contact," the "Next Generation" era of "Star Trek" movies had hit a new financial high. Naturally, there would be a sequel in the form of "Star Trek: Insurrection." The hope here was to maintain the box office momentum of "First Contact" and, initially, it looked like "Insurrection" would be able to do just that. Box Office Guru reported that the film cracked $22.1 million on opening weekend. That was beneath the domestic debuts of its two predecessors, but the hope was that opening in December (in contrast to the November launch pads of the previous "Star Trek" installments) would keep this one around longer. Plus "Insurrection" opened atop all other movies in North America, giving Paramount Pictures its 19^th instance of ruling a domestic box office weekend in 1998.

In the end, "Star Trek: Insurrection" didn't quite hold on as strongly as it could have, with the film eventually grossing just $70.1 million domestically, a sharp 25% decline from "Star Trek: First Contact." Worse, its worldwide haul was only $117 million, a disappointing sum for a title that cost $70 million to produce. After hitting a high with "First Contact," "Insurrection" charted the "Star Trek" franchise into bumpier terrain.

In the context of "Star Trek" as an entire franchise, "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" can best be described as "the one with the whales." The simpler and lighter plot of this outing could have made it the movie where "Star Trek" jumped the shark and embraced flights of fancy over more intellectual pursuits. Instead, this premise helped inspire a movie that's still generating positive responses to this day, with many calling it a high point in the entire franchise. This extremely appreciative response can be traced back to the film's initial theatrical release in 1986, when "The Voyage Home" scored significant box office results.

In its worldwide run, "The Voyage Home" grossed $133 million, including a $109.7 million North American haul. The latter sum made it the only "Star Trek" title to exceed $100 million domestically until "Star Trek" in 2009. Made on a $24 million budget, "The Voyage Home" was wildly profitable and was the fifth-biggest movie released in 1986 globally. Even back then, audiences were wild about "The Voyage Home," as seen by how it was given an A+ CinemaScore grade by audiences. When you make a film that resonates with people, especially when it involves whales, the sky is the limit for your box office potential.

The website TrekMovie did a breakdown in 2008 of the marketing campaigns for each of the "Star Trek" films. When it came to 1996's "Star Trek: First Contact," the site observed that this feature had the most widespread marketing campaign of any of the "Star Trek" movies starring the "Next Generation" cast members. The ubiquitous presence of promotional materials culminated in "Star Trek: First Contact" becoming a major box office hit, one that became the biggest "Star Trek" entry globally until 2009.

Scoring such a noticeable achievement came largely down to the positive reception that the film stoked among "Star Trek" devotees. In a retrospective on the film for The Hollywood Reporter, "First Contact" cast and crew members such as screenwriter Brannon Braga recalled that the movie played like gangbusters to theatrical audiences, a sign that word-of-mouth was bound to be strong. This was borne out in the picture's box office performance, as it soared across the cinematic landscape with $150 million worldwide, including a notable $92 million domestically. The latter number was enough to make it the 17^th biggest movie of 1992 and the third-biggest feature of the year for Paramount in North America. Launching at Thanksgiving, not to mention an avalanche of marketing, made "First Contact" a prime moviegoing option for people everywhere.

The 2009 "Star Trek" movie wasn't just a reboot of the "Star Trek" series. It was also a do-or-die moment for the franchise's box office prospects. After "Star Trek: Nemesis" had flopped at the box office seven years earlier, the cinematic landscape had changed further. "Star Trek" would now be opening in May 2009 in a summer blockbuster scene defined by superheroes and transforming robots. Would there be room anymore for Captain Kirk and friends? Could this saga get the "Batman Begins" treatment or would "Star Trek" go into the wastebasket of pop culture properties?

Turns out, those understandable concerns were not warranted. "Star Trek" took off like a rocket at the box office, especially in North America. While no prior "Trek" movie had exceeded $110 million domestically, "Star Trek" managed to speed past that mark in its second weekend of release, on its way to a $257.7 million haul. Overseas, the franchise was more subdued, but the $119.1 million intake from international countries was still a sizeable increase from all other entries in the saga. "Star Trek" managed to exceed all box office norms, thanks to a reboot that promised familiar characters like Kirk and Spock but told in a fast-paced, action-heavy manner that could appeal to 21^st-century moviegoers. It was the perfect blend of the old and the new, and when you throw in excellent reviews, then it seems like "Star Trek" was always destined to reenergize the saga.