Man, it's been an interesting few weeks at the box office. Between "Star Trek Into Darkness" having a worse opening than it's predecessor, despite having IMAX and 3D, and "Hangover 3" looking like it will struggle to make domestically what it's predecessor made in 5 days (135m), which do you guys think is the bigger financial disappointment?

I'm going to say Star Trek. With this release date Hangover III is expected.

I think that's obvious:

ST vs. STID opening week:

$104.6m ST
$103.8m STID (down 0.8 %)

H2 vs. H3 opening 2 days:

$61.6m H2
$25.8m H3 (if $14m Friday holds) (down 58 %)

Trek 2 had a lot more reasons to not only succeed, but improve from its predecessor. Hangover 3, even under the best release circumstances, wasn't going to get close to the 2nd.

I don't think you can just go by the numbers.

Trek 2 is coming off the great reviews and word of mouth of the reboot, plus the normal sequel factor and IMAX and 3D to boost ticket prices, everyone was expecting a bigger opening than the first film.

I don't know anyone that was expecting H3 to open to more than H2, given how bad H2 was received. It was already expected to not do as well as H2, but it wasn't expected to be this bad.

So by pure numbers, sure H3 wins, but I'm asking for your opinion in context of what the films were expected to do.

Having said that, I do think Hangover 3 is the bigger disappointment.

This

At least Star Trek 2 is as great as the first film, if not better by some people; HO 2 was not that liked and the new film is a step down in 'quality'

I actually think Hangover? Star Trek can still do like 200, whereas Hangover is going to make like 1/3 of what the last two did

ST 2. Many were expecting this to at least match ST 1's total.

HO3's underperforming was well expected.

Hangover was going to fall, but this is pretty drastic even compared with every indication. The trailer wasn't that well received which very well could be the difference.

yep that's why it's a bigger disappointment

I guess it depends on expectations. For me, there was initially no reason Star Trek Into Darkness should have decreased. All of the laws of box office pointed to it having a healthy increase over the '09 version, even with the poor marketing, bad release date and long wait.

Hangover 3 also suffered from the first two, except the difference that you aren't going to find many people who loved the last one and were craving a new one. It might have even come out too soon.

So even though, with the benefit of hindsight, Trek's final gross will be respectable, it is still the bigger disappointment because it had a higher ceiling. Not only with this installment, but future ones as well. Paramount was probably hoping for a constant $300M+ tent-pole every 2-3 years for at least a decade. We all learned that unlike Batman, Star Trek has limits. Hangover was done no matter how this one performed, until the inevitable reunion once Cooper and Galifinakis are no longer draws.

It's simple.

Star Trek Into Darkness is the bigger disappointment. Everybody expected an increase over Star Trek (2009) and it's making less. The Hangover Part III was never expected to make much, and it's not, so nobody can be disappointed by that.

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Hangover 3 without question, though it'll be interesting to see how it does overseas compared to the others

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EDIT: sorry don't know how that happened. On mobile.

HO3 by a mile.

Star Trek 2 is fine; it disappointed in its opening weekend, but counteracted that by opening well overseas. It's the most critically loved blockbuster this year, and should have decent legs in line with that strong WOM.

Hangover III, meanwhile, is an embarrassment for everyone. The studio, the actors, the director, the whole kit and caboodle should hang their head in shame. It is the most critically hated blockbuster this year (and maybe all year), and its legs should be justifiably godawful. Saying that it was "expected" to fail doesn't seem to work as an explanation...they wouldn't have greenlit a $100m budget and given it a cushy release date if they expected it to fail this hard.

Ho3 was destined not to do well.

ST2 should have done much better.

Star Trek, because everyone here was spinning it left and right, pulling the cliche' Shrek 2 card, made a What Went Wrong thread with seven pages and counting, had people here who predicted it to get silver place for the summer, some even picked it to win, actually had a lot of people who liked the film (including its predecessor), the typical in hindsight speeches came up, and are now having people clamor that Hangover 3 is more disapointing. That is disappointment defined.

People were actually disappointed with its run so far. Meanwhile Hangover 3 does not share such emotions.

Yeah it may have underperformed more, but that's not the question. Disappointment requires expectations to be shattered both logically and emotionally. People laugh at Hangover 3's disappointment, because, yeah, no one cares, which even further strengthens the logical side of the disappointment as well. Is anyone shocked? Like actually shocked, or are we just saying we are shocked?

Anytime a good film under performs, you get a lot of historical revisionism.

So because your emotionally involved with Star Trek because you liked the first, and disliked the 2nd hangover, it's a bigger disappointment.

Financially, Star Trek 2 is doing better than the first, and it also had a lot of factors that shows it could disappoint. All of a sudden, people are making out like this is a bigger disappointment then Star Trek Nemesis. Hangover III, everyone knew it would be the least successful of the series, but a 110 million budget, and not knowing how it will do overseas, it's quite a contender. Beside, I'm still holding my breath that another film will flop completely and not just fall below expectations (Since when is that the new "Biggest disappointment of all time" bit)

This man knows the truth.

Hangover 3 for me. Still hard to believe this is really happening.

I'm going to wait for final numbers before deciding.

This man doesn't know the truth.

HO3 will still make a lot overseas.