Star Trek Into Darkness/Release

The film premiered at the George Street Event Cinema in Sydney, Australia on 23 April 2013. Additional premieres took place in Moscow (25 April), Berlin (29 April), and London (2 May), before wide release in Australia, New Zealand, and the UK on 9 May. It premiered in Los Angeles on 14 May, before its release in the Philippines and North America on 16 May. IMAX 3D preview screenings in North America took place on 15 May. Paramount announced that the film would join its in a one-week-only "Ultimate Double Feature" from 30 August to 5 September. 
<tabber>
|-| Publicity/marketing=
Bad Robot Productions made efforts to keep the story of this film secret until its release, for the benefit of the audience. Fan interest in this film, though, meant it was difficult for Bad Robot to keep hiding the plot. ()
At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con, Roberto Orci hinted at changes to the Enterprise design and the opening credits. He commented upon commencement of filming that the engineering designs had been altered. 
Several photographs from behind-the-scenes appeared on the web on 24 February 2012, showing Zoë Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch and Zachary Quinto. Another batch of photos were leaked on 29 February, featuring Saldana with Chris Pine. Yet more behind-the-scenes pictures were posted online on 1 March 2012. Those photos depicted stunt work being done on the garbage barge set, involving the characters of Spock and Khan. 
 On 16 April 2012, a new photo from the filming went online, showing Zachary Quinto filming the volcano sequence. 
In an October 2012 interview on the talk show Conan, J.J. Abrams debuted a three-frame clip of Spock in the Nibiran volcano. 
IDW Publishing solicited a four-issue prequel comic book to the film, titled Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness. Like the previous film's comic book prequel, Star Trek: Countdown, it was written by Mike Johnson and drawn by David Messina. Johnson also wrote the ongoing comic book and said the first, fourth, and twelfth issues contained hints of events in the film. "They are more retroactive, in the sense that after you see the movie you can go back and see where things were set up. Some are very direct; others are more thematic." 
Hasbro released Kre-O and Fighter Pods toys to promote the film. Mattel released three new Hot Wheels Star Trek Into Darkness starship models, and Quantum Mechanix announced plans to release a number of prop replicas based on historical flight models that were seen in Admiral Marcus' office. 
A video game, , was released before this film. Its story and development cycle were independent of the films, but its release was delayed to promote Star Trek Into Darkness.
Alan Dean Foster wrote the novelization of this film.
The movie's soundtrack was released by Varèse Sarabande Records.
The first nine minutes of this film were shown before IMAX 3D screenings of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on 14 December 2012. The first trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness was shown before non-IMAX screenings of An Unexpected Journey. 
While showing scenes from this film at CinemaCon on 15 April 2013, members of the cast and crew expressed discomfort at promoting the film just hours after the . Chris Pine acknowledged the parallels between the film's plot and the real world; "Terrorism is a huge part of our lives, and we all know the effects of that." Before the film's Australian premiere, J.J. Abrams commented the parallels were "horrible and unfortunate and heartbreaking […] but I would argue that it is also one of the reasons we go to the movies – to look at our lives, to ask questions about things we are trying to figure out, to find ways to make some sense of these things." 
|-| Posters=
														
														
														
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%	
{| width=100%				
|-| Box office=Within hours of tickets going on sale in the UK on 9 April 2013, the 's website crashed due to heavy traffic. Following its opening in the UK, Australia, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Austria, and German speaking Switzerland, Star Trek Into Darkness set international records for the series with a gross of approximately $31.7 million. Reports indicated ticket sales were seventy percent higher than for the last film. 
After tickets to the US IMAX previews sold out, the film's wide release was moved up a day from its initial 17 May date. The film grossed US$81.1 million over its four-day opening, lower than Paramount's expected $100 million, but the film also already outgrossed its predecessor in markets such as Russia, Taiwan, and Mexico. The film's North American opening (three-day) weekend was actually less than the US$75 million opening of the first film, while attendance by audiences under the age of twenty-five dropped ten percent to twenty-five percent. The film dropped to third place during the subsequent four-day weekend, but grossed US$47 million. 
The film has grossed a total of US$458.7 million worldwide, with a domestic gross of US$228.7 million, which places it as the eleventh highest-grossing film in North America for 2013; and $231.3 million internationally, ranking it in fourteenth place worldwide, and making it the highest-grossing film of the Star Trek franchise. The film was less successful than its predecessor in North America but exceeded it in other countries such as Russia and China, overall bringing the worldwide total to a larger amount than the first film a month after its release. Forbes argued that Star Trek Into Darkness disappointing performance in North America was due to J.J. Abrams' refusal to spoil that John Harrison was Khan, so Paramount was "forced to craft a generic campaign based around Benedict Cumberbatch as 'Generic Bad Guy', so the excitement never took hold […] It made fans and general moviegoers less excited about Star Trek 2 than they were four, three, or even two years ago." 
Bryan Burk was extremely pleased with the film's international gross. "More than anything else, what I liked about the second film, and it sounds crass, but our box office doubled internationally [from the previous movie]," he stated, "which was really telling because people were starting to see [Trek] and not be afraid of it in the rest of the world." (SFX, issue 270, p. 71)
|-| Reception=Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were ultimately happy with this film, Kurtzman stating, "We feel, for the most part, that we accomplished everything we really wanted to." (SciFiNow, issue 84, p. 040)
J.J. Abrams was likewise pleased with how the film turned out. "This movie goes further than the first movie in every way," he enthused. "There are volcanic planets, wild spaceship chases and massive effects, but there is also a more nuanced story […] The action and the scale are light years ahead. Bringing IMAX and 3D technology in gives audiences yet another level of excitement and fun to be had." (SciFiNow, issue 80, p. 023)
Dan Mindel was pleased with the look of this film after working on it as cinematographer. "We walked away with a really great-looking film," he remarked, "which was necessary in order to top the first one." (, issue 287, pp. 87-90)
Early reactions to this film were positive. The day after the end of a two-week international tour promoting this film to the world's media, Bryan Burk divulged, "I'm excited for everyone to jump onboard with this film […] From the Star Trek fans who have seen it, they all seem significantly more invested than ever," Burk laughed. "It's funny. As I've been going around, preaching that this movie is now more accessible to non-Star Trek fans, the second they come out, I'm hearing from them it feels like it was made more for Star Trek fans, so I think it will be significantly rewarding for Trek fans." ()
This film has an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.5/10. The film has a "generally favorable" score of 72/100 on Metacritic. 
Among cinema goers, the film earned an "A" rating from those polled by CinemaScore. The year after its release, a poll to find the 301 greatest movies of all time by readers ranked the film at #245. 
On his twitter account, former Star Trek showrunner Rick Berman reviewed the film, saying, "Very exciting, great production and VFX. Fabulous acting. But is it a Star Trek film? Maybe. Only time will tell." He also contemplated how Gene Roddenberry might have reacted to the film, commenting, "At its soul, is it a movie that Gene would have given his blessings to? He very well might have. I really don't know." 
Brannon Braga opined, "Into Darkness was slightly less successful [than the previous film] in that I was pining for the allegory. It was feeling like a Star Trek flavored action movie." (SFX, issue 270, p. 68)
LeVar Burton critiqued this film by saying, "At the end of the movie, I really care about what happens to the characters… but I’m pretty much missing Gene Roddenberry in J.J.’s interpretation… and at the end of the day, that’s just not OK for me." 
Jonathan Frakes is disappointed that, despite visiting the set of this film, he wasn't permitted to participate in the making of it. Nevertheless, he approved of this movie. (SFX, issue 270, p. 63)
Wil Wheaton wrote a positive review of this film on his blog. He summarized his opinion of the film by stating, "I loved it. I think it's my favorite Star Trek movie ever, and I can't wait to see what this crew does next." 
Malcolm Reed actor Dominic Keating stated, "I went to see Into Darkness on a date and the girl I took was a Star Trek fan. Right at the end, where Spock is beating up on Benedict Cumberbatch, this little kid’s voice came screaming out from a couple of rows behind me: 'Way to go, Spock!' I turn around and it’s this kid who must have been about eight years old, and I thought to myself, 'Would you look at that. Fifty years on and they’re bringing it still. Isn’t that amazing?" (The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, p. 40)
The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer commented on the film's role reversal of a pivotal scene in that film that "You have to be flattered that somebody wants to sort of try and make your movie again. But the difference […] between a rip-off and an homage is that you are supposed to add something." 
Despite the fact this film turned out to be successful both with critics and at the box office, some fans were disappointed with the movie, finding it too similar to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Abrams conceded, "We got in trouble on the second Star Trek film with some of the fans: there were too many nods to The Wrath of Khan. I'll cop to that." Hollywood legend and intended Star Trek XIV writer Quentin Tarantino sided with the disenchanted fans at a later point in time, when he, a fan himself, emphatically stated in a 22 July 2019 interview given to MTV's Happy Sad Confused podcast, "No, Benedict Cumberbatch, or whatever his name is, is not Khan, alright? Khan is Khan." 
Tarantino and the critical fans were not alone in their assessment; despite the (cautiously) favorable reception expressed by the above quoted former Star Trek cast and crew, other former Star Trek production staffers (and Original Series fans) had already taken a slightly dimmer view on the alternate reality film franchise as well, after they had taken stock pursuant the release of Into Darkness. Doug Drexler has in 2013 put it as follows, "Technically they are beautiful… the work is stunning… however… and I hope no one will hold this against me… I did not enjoy the last two films, and honest…I really wanted to… but for me, Star Trek has to have a philosophical, humanist bend to it… always making a point, or asking a question. It should be introspective, and self examining. That's the Roddenberry factor. The new films are devoid of Gene Roddenberry, and at the end of the day, I'm not ok with that." 
In this Drexler was joined by former VAM Producer Roger Lay, Jr. who had stated in the same year, "Well, it’s not my Star Trek. It’s definitely not my Star Trek, it’s very different. What I love about Star Trek, sometimes it’s not really there, you know? I think they’re fun, popcorn movies…" His former VAM colleague Robert Meyer Burnett was even more outspoken in his opinion when he declared in a 2017 podcast (at 00:27:00 into the interview) that he hated the alternate reality Star Trek films "to the core of my existence" for the very same reasons, even though he conceded that the films were beautifully made. 
Believing they had made this film sufficiently different from the earlier one, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman responded by insisting that this film is not a remake and that at no point during the lead-up to it's release did they refer to it as a remake. Kurtzman remarked, "You certainly can't fault us for not taking the time to consider our choice [of whether to include Khan] – some people may disagree with the choices that we made, but we did not go into it blindly […] And people seem to like it, which is the most gratifying thing, because we made it for people." Added Orci, "I think for some fans their preconceived notions prevented them from evaluating the fact that the movie is actually worthy on its own, and that's why they're having a slight dissonance with people who didn't know Star Trek very well and obviously had a great reaction to it." The recycled dialogue used in this film was perhaps most disconcerting for some fans, to which Orci responded, "Put yourself in that situation [of having to write lines for the scene in question] and try and rewrite good stuff – we'd be equally harassed for, 'Oh, they tried to rewrite that scene and failed!" Laughing, Orci likened this dilemma to the . Another debate in the fan community was about whether Khan would still have suddenly gone on the offensive if Kirk hadn't had Scott stun him once those three characters have secured the Vengeance. (SciFiNow, issue 84, pp. 040, 041 & 042)
|-| Merchandise gallery=
				
				
				
				
				
</tabber>