This new Star Trek always was expected to do solidly, and even spectacularly, in its 3,800 domestic theaters. And it has. But what really counted to Paramount with this reboot was expanding the scifi franchise’s weak foreign appeal in years past. JJ Abrams’ reboot opened day and date in 54 countries its opening weekend, and then China on Friday, Japan on May 29th, and Mexico on June 5th. So did this Star Trek catch on with foreign audiences? You betcha! As of today, the pic’s international cume is $70M over two weeks. This already makes Abrams’ version the highest grossing international Star Trek, beating First Contact which did $57.4 million internationally. No movie in the franchise has ever cracked $100M overseas before. But Paramount is predicting that this latest Star Trek should do around $150 international and around $400M worldwide (even with stiff competition from Sony’s Angels & Demons opening #1 in every foreign territory this weekend and reporting $104.3M on 10,468 screens from 96 countries for a worldwide take of $152.3 million). Star Trek added another $21M this weekend from 6,131 locations across 57 territories. In the UK, its best market, the film has grossed $19M in just two weeks cume.) So now Star Trek‘s worldwide cume is $216M. What made the difference? I think the fact that previous Star Trek movies started “in the middle” so to speak, assuming that audiences knew all the backstory. But Abrams’ version smartly starts at the beginning so international audiences as well as young North American viewers could get on board from the beginning.

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