‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ Box Office Hurt By Video Game, Says J.J. Abrams

Director J.J. Abrams believes the poor reviews surrounding Star Trek: The Game may have hurt Star Trek Into Darkness at the box office.

The video game hit retail shelves just a few weeks before the filmmaker’s sequel arrived on the big screen. Abrams firmly believes the negativity surrounding this interactive endeavor played a hand in how much money the follow-up made during its theatrical run.

J.J. Abrams recently discussed Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek: The Game during a chat with GamerHub. The Super 8 director said the terrible reviews and sales surrounding the game were a “big disappointment.”

“We were actually involved from the very beginning, and then we sort of realized that it was not going in a place where we were going to get what we wanted. So we dropped out, and they continued to do it despite,” Abrams explained.

The director continued, “For me, emotionally, it hurt because we were working our asses off making the movie and then this game came out and it got — this isn’t even my opinion — it got universally panned.”

According to Worst Previews, the developers behind Star Trek: The Game aren’t willing to shoulder all of the responsibility for the title’s reception. The folks at Digital Extremes explained that Paramount Pictures put too much pressure on the designers during its inception.

Although the video game may have prevented the movie from making a ton of cash at the box office, Star Trek Into Darkness didn’t do too poorly during its theatrical run. The follow-up to Abrams’ reboot of the franchise ended up scoring approximately $465 million from around the world.

Star Trek: The Game, meanwhile, presently has a Metacritic score of 42. The folks at Edge Magazine claimed the title had “more bugs crawling on it than a ‘Fear Factor’ contestant.” It’s pretty easy to see why the game didn’t do its cinematic counterpart any favors.

You can check out the director’s interview below.

Do you believe J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Into Darkness was affected by the negative reviews and poor sales surrounding Star Trek: The Game?

[Image via Digital Extremes]