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'Star Trek' beams up $7 million Thurs.

Paramount pic opened at 7 p.m. Thursday

By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK

'Star Trek' pulled in $7 million from U.S. theaters on Thursday and is expected to top this weekend's box office.

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Paramount's "Star Trek" opened at 7 p.m. Thursday on most of its 3,800 screens, grossing an estimated $7 million as of Friday morning.

J.J. Abrams' reboot of the classic sci-fi franchise currently stands as the best-reviewed movie of the year, earning a 96% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

Last weekend, 20th Century Fox's "Wolverine" grossed nearly $5 million in midnight runs, although "Wolverine" didn't start its run until 12:01 a.m. Friday.

As with "Star Trek," Par opened "Iron Man" on a Thursday night in May 2008. "Iron Man" grossed north of $4 million in Thursday evening/midnight runs on its way to grossing $102.1 million for the weekend.

Based on tracking, Par, along with some of its rivals, doesn't expect "Star Trek" to come close to "Iron Man's" opening gross, or even the $85 million earned by "Wolverine" last weekend. Nonetheless, a number of films have overperformed in recent months.