Who would win in a fight, Captain America or Captain Kirk? According to Chris Pine, his Star Trek films never stood a chance against Marvel’s mighty movie machine. Speaking to a crowd at ACE Superhero Comic Con, Pine revealed that while his Trek films did well at the box office, Marvel’s success gave the studio unrealistic expectations, which ultimately hindered the franchise.
“We made our film in 2007 and then I think Iron Man came out in 2008. It was right when the billion-dollar machine that is Marvel began, so the metrics of success shifted in this huge way. Our first film made like $400 million, a lot of money by any standard or metric of success financially speaking. But, compared to the billion-dollar franchises that were Thor and the Captains, we just couldn’t compete,” Pine explained.
Some of Pine’s memory is a bit off. To clarify, Pine’s first Star Trek movie was filmed in 2007, as he states, but it was released in 2009, one year after Iron Man. While Marvel’s early films did well, they didn’t start grossing $1 billion until 2012’s The Avengers. Prior to that, Captain America: The First Avenger grossed $370 million worldwide. This was less than the 2009 Star Trek film and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness.
However, Pine is right about Marvel changing studio and audience perceptions. In 2016, Star Trek Beyond made a worldwide gross of $343 million. That same year, Marvel Studios released Captain America: Civil War, which surpassed $1 billion. The Enterprise was looking pretty weak compared to the Avengers’ Quinjet.
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