Star Trek (film)/Release

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|-| Release delay=At the time production began, Star Trek was set for a worldwide theatrical release on . Later, Paramount was reportedly considering bumping up the film's release date one or two days or moving it to 19 December 2008. On , however, Variety magazine reported that the film's release would be put back, from 2008 to , in order to take advantage of the summer movie season. 
Around the time the delay was announced, a Paramount spokesperson stressed that the change in release date had nothing to do with the film's production or its script. The spokesman stated that the decision was all about box-office potential and the spokesman said that Star Trek is in the same league as such past summer blockbusters as Spider-Man, Shrek, Transformers, and the Star Wars prequels. Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore revealed to Entertainment Weekly that another reason the movie was pushed back was so they could "educate people that this is a whole new franchise." 
|-| Premieres=The gala world premiere of Star Trek took place on at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. The film's cast and crew were in attendance. This was followed by a number of additional premiere events around the world – Austria; Belgium; France; Germany; Japan; Korea; the Netherlands; New Zealand; Russia; Spain; London, UK: ; Los Angeles, USA.
A few hours prior to the official premiere in Sydney, fans in Austin, Texas were given a surprise screening of the film. The event had been announced as a ten-minute preview following a showing of , hosted by writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof. However, after two minutes the film of The Wrath of Khan appeared to melt. Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof proceeded to vamp for a few minutes but were interrupted by a surprise appearance of Leonard Nimoy, who asked the audience if they would like to watch the new film instead. 
The official American premiere was held at the famous Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood on . Attending the event were J.J. Abrams, most of the film crew, and nearly the entire cast. 
|-| General=Although the United States release date was set for , advance screenings of the film began at 7 pm on . However, the first worldwide release was in France, Belgium, and the French-speaking parts of Switzerland on . 
For the first time, a Star Trek film was released in IMAX as well as conventional theaters. Although the film was not shot with IMAX cameras, the film was able to be converted to the 70 mm IMAX format. This was the first Trek project since the abandoned Star Trek: IMAX to be considered for the medium. 
Star Trek, released in May 2009, was the first Star Trek film released in the summer months since 1989's .
|-| Reception=Star Trek has received nearly universal acclaim from film critics. Star Trek currently has a 95% "certified fresh" rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 278 reviews, with an average critic's rating of 8.1 on a scale of 10. Based on the findings of Rotten Tomatoes, Star Trek is currently the second-best reviewed mainstream film of 2009, after Up. On the review aggregator website Metacritic, Star Trek has a metascore of 83 out of 100, based on 37 critics' reviews. 
Based on listings tracked by Metacritic, twenty-three critics from twelve different publications ranked Star Trek as one of the ten best films of 2009. Among the publications whose critics praised Star Trek as such were Boston Globe, Empire Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Miami Herald, New York Daily News, The New Yorker, and the Washington Post. 
Bryan Burk recalled, "In general with Star Trek, a lot of people came out saying they really liked it and it wasn't what they thought it was going to be. For me, that was the biggest win." (SFX, issue 270, p. 71)
Despite the praise, some reviews criticized the lack of a classical Star Trek allegory. In Empires 4/5 review, Colin Kennedy noted the themes "primarily relate to the nature of friendship and teamwork, which is all very well, […] but in a time when the United States is engaged in two wars, the failure to even acknowledge the issues arising from space imperialism and the Prime Directive is to flinch from battle. Harsher critics may even deem it a dereliction of duty." 
In a 2013 article about J.J. Abrams, characterized the introduction of Kirk in this film as a prime example of how Abrams juxtaposes the everyday with the extraordinary to create "relatable spectacle," tonally similar to Steven Spielberg's film-making. (, issue 287, p. 77) In 2014, Empire readers ranked Star Trek at #188 in a poll to determine the 301 greatest movies of all time. 
In a interview, Brannon Braga commented, " I thought Star Trek was fantastic. It was beautifully directed and took Trek to a whole other level in terms of action. They had quadruple the budget when we did ours. But the casting was perfect and it was almost an impossible task." Braga also prefers this film to . (SFX, issue 270, p. 68)
Jonathan Frakes is disappointed that, despite visiting the set of this film, he wasn't permitted to participate in the making of it. Nonetheless, he approved of this movie. (SFX, issue 270, p. 63)
|-| Box office=Star Trek topped the North American box office in its opening weekend, grossing US$75.2 million from Friday through Sunday. It also earned an estimated US$4 million from its Thursday night advance screenings, for a total of US$79.2 million over its first three and a quarter days. It marked the highest opening weekend box office gross of any film in the franchise, surpassing 's opening weekend of US$30.7 million (approximately US$50 million when adjusted for inflation). Star Trek had the sixth highest opening weekend of 2009, following The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and Avatar. 
Included in Star Treks opening weekend gross was US$8.5 million from 138 IMAX venues, setting a new weekend record for IMAX. It surpassed the previous benchmark set by The Dark Knight, which earned US$6.3 million from IMAX screenings in its first weekend. (Star Treks IMAX record was subsequently beaten by Avatar.) In addition, Star Trek yielded the most-attended start ever for a movie debuting in the second weekend of May, topping 1996's Twister. Star Trek also managed to top many overseas box office charts in its first weekend, grossing US$35.5 million from 54 international markets. 
Star Trek ended its domestic theatrical run on with a total gross of US$257,730,019, making it the seventh highest grossing film of 2009 in North America. It was the year's highest-grossing film in the United States from Wednesday, 27 May, though Saturday, 27 June, a total of 31 days, after which it was overtaken by Disney/Pixar's Up (which, coincidentally, was also composed by Michael Giacchino). Star Trek has also done good business internationally, earning more from foreign markets than any previous Star Trek films (with the possible exception of Star Trek: The Motion Picture). Star Treks international gross is US$127,950,428, bringing its total worldwide gross to US$385,680,447. 
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