‘Angels & Demons’ set to open at about $45 million, with ‘Star Trek’ zooming close behind

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‘Angels & Demons’ is on track for a soft opening below $50 million domestically and the Starship Enterprise is chasing hot on its heels.

Sony Pictures’ ‘Da Vinci Code’ follow-up sold $16.6 million worth of tickets on Friday. That’s 42% less than the first movie starring Tom Hanks, directed by Ron Howard and based on a Dan Brown novel, grossed on its opening day three years ago, despite higher ticket prices. If ‘Angels & Demons’ follows the same pattern as its predecessor, it will reach about $45 million through Sunday, a weak start for a $150-million-budget thriller. ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ which cost $125 million, sold $77 million in tickets on its first weekend.

However, the U.S. and Canada ended up accounting for less than 30% of that movie’s total worldwide box office, and the same could hold true for ‘Angels.’ So far, there isn’t much information on how it is performing in the 97 foreign countries where it launched this week.

Domestically, though, ‘Angels’ may end up in the awkward position of barely beating ‘Star Trek’s’ second weekend. Paramount’s sci-fi reboot made $11.75 million on Friday. Its final weekend tally should be close to $40 million.

‘Star Trek’s’ Friday gross is down 62% from last week, but that number is inflated by $3 million of midnight shows on its first full day at the box office. Accounting for that, as well as the impact of Mother’s Day last Sunday, the film could end up dropping around 50% from its $75.2-million opening weekend, a relatively small sum for a big-budget summer action movie.

As of Friday, ‘Star Trek’s’ total domestic gross stands at $116.5 million.

-- Ben Fritz