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December 14, 2002

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With their built-in audience, the nine previous Trek films grossed an average of $181 million in inflation-adjusted terms and earned a collective profit of $1.2 billion. And Nemesis is better — darker, more surprising — than the average Trek. Of course, it won't make as much as, say, Spider-Man. Yet Star Trek has outlasted other brands over the years. (Suck a phaser, Batman.)

How does Trek survive? The oft-cited answer is that freakish Trekkies — fans who saved the original series with passionate letters and today maintain an eBay market of 25,000 Trek items — still sustain the franchise. Wrong. Trek hasn't been a cult enterprise in years. It is, instead, a humming mainstream business that responds quickly to changes in mass culture. That's why the new film and TV show depart from the softer story lines of the '90s. Since Sept. 11, Star Trek has basically become an action franchise again. It's even trying to be sexier. But Trek's creators must constantly ask themselves how to draw new consumers without alienating old ones. It's the Cher problem: How many times can you reinvent yourself?

To read more, click on this link.

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