Star Trek Beyond landed atop the weekend US box office, soaring to $59.6m in North American ticket sales and knocking Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets from the No1 spot, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
Pets was the second-most-popular film at theaters, adding $29.3m to its stellar $260m earnings to date. Paramount’s Star Trek Beyond is the third film since JJ Abrams rebooted the franchise in 2009.
Despite the latest release opening $20m behind 2009’s Star Trek, experts say it’s still promising.
“This is a solid enough debut to tell them there’s still enough interest in Star Trek to keep this franchise alive,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the box office tracker comScore.