Star Trek

Before diving into this weekend, how about a little history?

With "Iron Man" having opened just three weekends earlier to a stunning $98 million dollar draw, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" jumped out of the gate Memorial Day weekend 2008 to a total just a hair over $100 million. That's two of the 12 largest openings in the span of one month.

But wait, Memorial Day 2007 there was "Pirates 3" for a total of $114 million. And that same month, "Spider-Man 3" at $151, and "Shrek the Third" at $121. All three, of course, are top 10 opening weekend totals.

Last week, "Star Trek" did quite well for itself, as it managed to take in a terrific opening haul as well as win near universal praise from critics. So, as these things tend to work, Paramount immediately rolled out its front-runner advertising campaign, which championed "Star Trek" as the nation's number one movie, etc, etc. Unfortunately, they're only going to get one week out of those ads.

I admit it, I'm a lifelong "Star Trek" hater. Over the years I've tried to get into "Star Trek" a few times but I don't think I've ever made it all the way through an episode. Not that I minded that much - every geek needs another group of geeks they can look at and feel cool in comparison. If I became a Trekkie there'd be no one left for my scorn but the LARPers.