May 10 (Bloomberg) -- “Star Trek” opened with $72.5 million in ticket sales, the best debut in the 11-movie franchise, as fans turned out to see a new, younger crew for the Paramount Pictures Film.

“Star Trek” topped the series’ previous high, $30.7 million in first-weekend sales for 1996’s “Star Trek: First Contact,” researcher Hollywood.com Box-Office said today in an e-mailed statement. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” dropped to second place with sales of $27 million. Last weekend, it made $87 million, the best opening this year to date.

The box-office leading debut for “Star Trek” may pave the way for still more films about Captain James T. Kirk, the Vulcan Mr. Spock and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. It also provides the studio, a unit of Viacom Inc., with prospects for additional revenue from video games, toys and other consumer products. The first 10 “Star Trek” films generated $755.6 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada.

“This was great marketing, and a great movie,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com Box-Office, in a telephone interview. “The trailer was incredible, and it got a lot of people excited about seeing the film. The film delivers on the promise of that trailer.”

Record Summer

Studios are benefiting from a surge in attendance that has lifted ticket revenue 16 percent as of May 10. The increase puts Hollywood on course for record summer sales of $4.6 billion and a new annual high of $10.5 billion, according to Los Angeles- based Hollywood.com Box-Office. The summer season typically accounts for about 40 percent of the year’s box office take.

The new “Star Trek” is a prequel to the original television series that first aired in 1966. The film opens with the birth of Kirk as his mother is evacuated from a starship under attack.

The movie follows Kirk, Spock, Dr. “Bones” McCoy and other characters from the television series as they join the crew of the Enterprise. Chris Pine plays Kirk and Zachary Quinto, co-star of the “Heroes” TV show, is Spock. Karl Urban plays McCoy.

The new “Star Trek” has received almost all upbeat reviews, with 195 of 204 rated positive on the Web site www.rottentomatoes.com.

‘Girlfriends Past’

The most recent film in the series, “Star Trek: Nemesis,” opened in second place in the box office in December 2002 with less than $19 million in sales, trailing the Jennifer Lopez film “Maid in Manhattan.”

Second place’s “Wolverine” stars Hugh Jackman as a mutant with super powers. The film, the fourth in the “X-Men” series, has generated $129.6 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada. “X-Men” characters are based on the comic books published by Marvel Entertainment Inc.

“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” was third with $10.5 million. The film from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. stars Matthew McConaughey as a callous bachelor who is visited by the ghosts of jilted girlfriends. They force him to revisit failed relationships. Jennifer Garner co-stars.

The thriller “Obsessed,” starring Beyonce Knowles, dropped to fourth place with $6.6 million in sales. The film, has taken in $56.2 million since it opened on April 24. Sony Corp. is the distributor.

‘Next Day Air’

The comedy “17 Again,” starring Zac Efron, fell to fifth from fourth with $4.4 million in sales for Warner Bros. Efron plays the younger version of a man who wakes up to find he’s a teenager again.

The weekend’s only other new film, “Next Day Air,” was sixth with $4 million in ticket sales. The movie from Summit Entertainment LLC stars Mike Epps and Dante “Mos Def” Smith as friends whose lives change when a courier inadvertently gives them a package of cocaine.

The following table has figures provided by studios to Hollywood.com Box-Office. The amounts are based on actual ticket sales on May 8 and yesterday and estimates for today.

                         Rev.           Avg./   Pct. Total
Movie                   (mln) Theaters  Theater Chg. (mln)  Wks
================================================================

1 STAR TREK             $72.5   3,849  $18,836   --  $76.5    1
2 WOLVERINE              27.0   3,849    7,015   -68 129.6    2
3 GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS  10.5   3,175    3,291   -32  30.2    2
4 OBSESSED                6.6   2,602    2,537   -45  56.2    3
5 17 AGAIN                4.5   2,903    1,517   -31  54.2    4
6 NEXT DAY AIR            4.0   1,138    3,515   --    4.0    1
7 THE SOLOIST             3.6   2,090    1,725   -36  23.5    3
8 MONSTERS VS. ALIENS     3.4   2,185    1,546   -42 186.9    7
9 EARTH                   2.5   1,794    1,387   -43  26.1    3
10 HANNAH MONTANA         2.4   2,301    1,049   -42  74.1    5
11 FIGHTING               2.1   1,933    1,110   -47  20.6    3
12 STATE OF PLAY          1.9   1,541    1,290   -47  34.1    4

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 10, 2009 14:27 EDT