LOS ANGELES, July 26 — Star Trek Beyond topped the box office in its opening weekend, data showed yesterday, but with underwhelming receipts that left analysts wondering whether it can live long and prosper.

Paramount's latest instalment in the 50-year-old franchise took US$59.3 million (RM242.181 million), according to industry tracker Exhibitor Relations — a 15 per cent drop on the opening for 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness.

Box Office Mojo analyst Brad Brevet projected a final domestic haul of around US$180 million for Justin Lin's science-fiction adventure, which sees the USS Enterprise crew shipwrecked on a hostile planet.

That would be a marked decline on the US$228.7 million take for Into Darkness and an even bigger drop on 2009's Star Trek, which delivered US$257.7 million.

However, given Beyond's US$185 million budget, all eyes will now turn toward the film's international performance, Brevet wrote.

In the end, Into Darkness came in below 2009's Star Trek reboot domestically, but outperformed the 2009 film internationally by US$110 million.

Star Trek Beyond dislodged The Secret Life of Pets from two weeks in the top spot. Pets, which racked up an impressive US$104.4 million in its debut weekend, took in US$29.6 million.

The Universal Pictures animated comedy follows two pet dogs let loose in New York City, featuring the voices of comedian Louis CK and actor Eric Stonestreet.

David Sandberg's Lights Out, a horror movie about a creature that only attacks in the dark, debuted in third place, taking in US$21.7 million at the box office.

Close behind was Ice Age: Collision Course with a US$21.4 million take in its debut.

The 3-D animated film — with the slogan Kiss your ice goodbye — features animals trying to fend off a meteor strike that would destroy the world.

Ghostbusters — a remake of the 1984 supernatural comedy that replaces the male leads with women — dropped to less than half of its opening weekend box office, taking in just US$21 million.

Rounding out the top 10 films of the weekend were:

 — Finding Dory (US$7.2 million)

— The Legend of Tarzan (US$6.6 million)

— Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (US$4.4 million)

— Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party (US$3.7 million)

— The Infiltrator (US$3.3 million).  — AFP