Simon Pegg Angry That 'Star Trek Beyond' Was 'Poorly Marketed' & Spoiled by Trailer
Listen all y'all, there was a sabotage of "Star Trek Beyond."
Simon Pegg plays Scotty in the "Star Trek" reboot film series, and he co-wrote the script for 2016's "Star Trek Beyond."
"Beyond" had a reported budget of $185 million and made about $373 million worldwide. Contrast that to the previous film, "Star Trek: Into Darkness," which earned $467 million.
While Pegg seemed to have a great professional experience making the film -- and he was pleased that critics and fans both enjoyed the finished product -- he was frustrated with the box office results, and blamed a lot of it on marketing.
Pegg tried to set it straight, this Watergate, in a chat with Geek Exchange:
"I think it was poorly marketed, to be honest. If you look at a film like 'Suicide Squad,' that was around for such a long time before it finally came out and people were so aware of it. Whereas with 'Star Trek Beyond,' it was left too late before they started their marketing push. It still did great business, but it was disappointing compared to 'Into Darkness.'"
Pegg was also not happy with the first trailer spoiling a planned surprise:
"I was really angry about that, because it used 'Sabotage,' which was our surprise moment in the end. It was supposed to be a very fun and heightened twist, and something that was a big surprise and they blew it in the first trailer, which really annoyed me."
He was also frustrated with Paramount's marketing going for the wrong tone, and missing a major promotion opportunity:
"They also made the film look like a boneheaded action film. And they were scared, I think, of mentioning the 50th Anniversary.
It was fumbled as a thing; they didn't know what to do with it and it's a real shame. But I came away from it really, really happy and very proud of it."
Fans and critics both seemed to be on the same page about "Star Trek Beyond," rating it 80-84 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and 67-68 on Metacritic.
Read the full Geek Exchange report for Pegg's tease about a script being written for a fourth movie, after "Star Trek," "Into Darkness," and "Beyond." There's a connection to Quentin Tarantino, whether that ever pans out or not.
Simon Pegg can next be seen in Steven Spielberg's "Ready Player One," opening March 29, and then in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout," out July 27.
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