Paramount studio head Brian Robbins says fans want more Kelvin Star Trek films.
Star Trek’s parent company Paramount announced earlier this year, that despite not having a script or contracts in place, the entire surviving cast of the Kelvin Star Trek films will be returning for a fourth, as yet unnamed film in the franchise. Paramount studio head Brian Robbins revealed why, saying that research shows fans want more of the Kelvin cast.
Robbins spoke to Variety and revealed that the data says fans are aching for a fourth outing with Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto the crew;
"I’m a research nerd, and what the data tells me is that the audience wants that cast in this movie."
Yet, despite the data saying fans are interested and the long-gestation for the fourth film to feature this crew of characters, the team at hand still has yet to finish a script for the film. Robbins tells Variety that JJ Abrams and company are working hard and while they’re close, they’re not done yet with the creative portion.
"We’re deep into it with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we’re getting close to the starting line and excited about where we’re going creatively."
Fans will have to show up to get more Kelvin Star Trek films
I’ve never liked Star Trek: Beyond and thought the previous two outings were much better and while many may disagree with me, the box office doesn’t. While none of the three films in the Kelvin timeline series broke $500 million, Beyond was the least profitable at $345 million.
When you look at a film’s budget on Wikipedia or anywhere else online, that is just the raw figure for production. It doesn’t include promotion or marketing. There are some who believe that with advertising, Beyond may not have even broken even.
If that’s the case a fourth film may be far less expensive, or may not have the same advertising budget.
Regardless of that, Beyond proved that this version of Trek isn’t a guaranteed hit, and if fans want to see more Trek, they need to show up in theaters to get more. That’s something that hasn’t happened in recent years.
I liked these films, and want a fourth film, but market data isn’t always accurate and if fans want a fifth film, they have to show up for the fourth one.
Now, it’s always possible these go straight to Paramount+, which would negate the need to break even or even make a profit. Most streaming services operate at a loss with the idea of building a bit of fan equity of sorts. The idea is that they’ll hook you on one series and hopefully bring you back for more.
So a Star Trek film debuting on a streaming service wouldn’t be judged by how much it made.