Gay Star Trek spoof tops German summer box office

Gay Trekkies, green ogres, teen wizards, and a buff Brad Pitt helped German exhibitors to a record summer box office, with revenue surging more than 30% over last year to $365.1 million, according to figures released by Nielsen EDI. Some 51.8 million tickets were sold during the summer period, which in Germany is considered to run May 3-August 29, compared with 38.2 million tickets for the previous year. Constantin Film's German sci-fi spoof (T)Raumschiff Surprise--Periode 1, which features a gay version of the Star Trek crew, was the single most successful summer film in the territory. The feature--directed, written by, and starring German comedian Michael "Bully" Herbig--has taken in $58 million since its July 22 bow and is still firmly anchored in the Top 5. But Warner Bros. Pictures was the summer's hottest distributor in the territory, scoring blockbuster hits with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which took in $47 million in Germany, and Troy, which took in $35.5 million. In all, Warner films accounted for a 24.9% share of the summer take. Other German summer hits included Shrek 2, which brought in $33 million for United International Pictures, and Columbia TriStar's Spider-Man 2, which recorded a respectable $23 million in Germany.