Galaxy Quest (1999) Was Not a Flop. Here Is What Actually Happened.

The film's second weekend produced $7.5 million, an increase of 7 percent from its opening. Films with strong word of mouth hold or improve in their second weekend. Films that audiences are genuinely telling each other about improve. Galaxy Quest improved. It expanded from its opening number of theaters as it ran, eventually playing in 2,450 locations. The domestic total was $71.6 million. International added $19 million. Worldwide: $90.7 million against a $45 million production budget.

By the arithmetic of budget versus worldwide gross, Galaxy Quest earned twice its production cost. This is a commercial success.

What underperformed

The film opened seventh because it was under-marketed. The Hollywood Reporter has quoted several key figures from the production saying that DreamWorks left money on the table through a sparse marketing campaign that failed to introduce the film to its natural audience. The science fiction community, the Star Trek fan community, the audience that would have been the film's most passionate opening-weekend advocates, was not reached effectively in the weeks before release.

The film performed the way films with strong word of mouth perform: slowly, across a long run, through the specific mechanism of people telling other people. This is not how studios want their $45 million productions to perform. It is, however, how good films sustain themselves when the initial marketing fails to communicate what they are.

The Hugo and the Nebula

Within months of the theatrical release, the science fiction community had delivered its verdict. Galaxy Quest won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the premier science fiction award voted on by practitioners and engaged fans of the genre. It also won the Nebula Award for Best Script, voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. It was nominated for ten Saturn Awards.

These are not the awards a film receives when it fails to connect with its intended audience. They are the awards a film receives when it connects perfectly.

The Star Trek vote

In 2013, Star Trek fans voted Galaxy Quest the seventh best Star Trek film of all time in a poll that included all official franchise installments. This vote was made with full awareness that Galaxy Quest is not a Star Trek film. The community was saying that a film about the Star Trek community had understood the Star Trek community better than approximately half the films officially produced within the franchise.

Jonathan Frakes, Commander Riker from The Next Generation, called it perfect, saying it captured the essence of Star Trek with love and humor and intelligence. Denise Crosby, Lieutenant Tasha Yar from the same series, said it was like they had read their mail.

The film that opened seventh on Christmas weekend 1999 is, in the judgment of its most knowledgeable potential critics, one of the best science fiction films ever made.

FAQ: Galaxy Quest (1999) Box Office

Did Galaxy Quest (1999) make money?

Yes. Galaxy Quest earned $71.6 million domestically and $19 million internationally for a worldwide total of $90.7 million against a $45 million production budget. It was a commercial success, though it underperformed relative to its opening weekend placement.

Why did Galaxy Quest open in seventh place?

The film was released on Christmas Day into a crowded holiday marketplace with an inadequate marketing campaign. DreamWorks failed to reach the film's natural audience — the science fiction and Star Trek fan community — effectively in pre-release advertising.

What awards did Galaxy Quest win?

Galaxy Quest won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Nebula Award for Best Script. Tim Allen won the Saturn Award for Best Actor. The film was nominated for ten Saturn Awards total.

Was Galaxy Quest considered a Star Trek parody?

The film parodies the conventions of the Star Trek franchise and science fiction television generally, but it does so with genuine affection for the material. Star Trek fans have consistently embraced it, and in 2013 a fan poll ranked it seventh among the best Star Trek films despite it not being an official franchise installment.

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