May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Paramount Pictures is betting that director J.J. Abrams and a new, younger crew for the Starship Enterprise can make the “Star Trek” franchise live longer and prosper more.

“Star Trek,” featuring Chris Pine as Capt. James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto from TV’s “Heroes” as the Vulcan Mr. Spock, may take in $71 million at U.S. and Canadian theaters this weekend, said Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com.

Drawing new fans to the 43-year-old franchise is crucial to Paramount, which is owned by Viacom Inc. A hit would provide a boost to studio chairman Brad Grey by breathing new life into a franchise that Paramount owns outright and offer new opportunities for video games and merchandise. The film is the 11th in a series based on the TV show that first aired in 1966.

“It would be one of the few wholly owned franchises that they could monetize across consumer products,” said David Bank, a New York-based analyst for RBC Capital Markets. “The ability to create a bankable franchise, that’s really important.”

The studio’s other major summer films, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra,” are licensed from toymaker Hasbro Inc. Many of the other top- performing films the studio has released, such as DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.’s “Monsters vs. Aliens,” are owned by other producers. Paramount distributes them for a fee.

The new film, a prequel to the TV show, begins with Kirk’s birth as his mother is being evacuated from a spacecraft under attack. It follows him through a rebellious youth and his first encounter with Spock, who used the Vulcan greeting, “Live long and prosper” in the TV series and previous films.

Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, appears in several scenes. William Shatner, the first Capt. Kirk, doesn’t.

Advance Sales

“Star Trek” accounted for 91 percent of advance sales by online ticket vendor Fandango.com and 90 percent of those sold by MovieTickets.com, the two companies said in e-mails.

Including Thursday night showings, “Star Trek” may take in $74 million, said Pandya, who is based in New York. That compares with a forecast of $65 million to $70 million from Jeffrey Hartke, an analyst at Hollywood Stock Exchange, which projects movie sales. Both estimates trail the $85.1 million taken in last weekend by News Corp.’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.”

Paramount spokeswoman Patti Rockenwagner said the company had no comment on the film’s box-office prospects.

The predictions may be lower because the most recent “Star Trek” films generated weak sales, Brandon Gray, president of the industry researcher Box Office Mojo LLC, said in an interview. “Star Trek: Nemesis,” released in 2002, produced $43.3 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, according to Gray’s Web site.

Previous Films

The 10 previous “Star Trek” films, starting with “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” in 1979, have averaged $75.6 million, according to Box Office Mojo. That compares with a $176.4 million average for the four “X-Men” movies, a series that began in 2000.

“‘Star Trek’ doesn’t have the recent blockbuster history that ‘X-Men’ has,” said Gray, whose offices are in Sherman Oaks, California. “It has a completely new cast and crew and, on top of that, the last couple of ‘Star Trek’ movies disappointed at the box office.”

The “Star Trek” television series was produced by Desilu Productions for its first two years, according to the Internet Movie Database. Paramount’s television unit took over in 1968 and has made all of the movies. Over the years, “Star Trek” has spawned spinoff TV shows, books, conventions, a Klingon language, film parodies and legions of fans.

Marketing Challenge

That created a unique marketing challenge for Paramount and Abrams, said Jeff Gomez, chief executive officer of Starlight Runner Entertainment, a New York-based firm that helps studios promote films through the Internet, mobile phones and other non- traditional media.

During production, Abrams and the film’s screenwriters made frequent postings on Web sites, released photos from the set and provided hints about the characters and plot, said Gomez, who didn’t work on the marketing. The campaign also included magazine interviews.

“Torchbearers had to understand that this ‘Star Trek’ was going to be for everyone, but that special considerations would be made for them,” Gomez said.

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

Last Updated: May 8, 2009 00:01 EDT