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Hollywood's sequel slowdown continued this weekend, this time with "Star Trek Beyond" and "Ice Age: Collision Course" faring worse than their predecessors at the box office.

"Star Trek Beyond," the third installment of the rebooted take on Captain Kirk, Spock and the USS Enterprise crew, made its debut in first place with an estimated $59.6 million, the lowest opening of the series.

The "Beyond" opening isn't as steep a drop-off as some sequels this summer. It is about $15 million below the original "Star Trek" debut in 2009 and $10 million less than what "Star Trek Into Darkness" premiered with in 2013. But making matters more dire: "Star Trek Beyond," which was distributed by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, had a costly budget of about $185 million.

The weekend's other new sequel, "Ice Age: Collision Course" drastically underwhelmed with $21 million in fifth place. That is by far the worst opening of the series, whose previous low starting point was when "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" opened to $41.7 million in 2009.

"Ice Age" was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox, whose parent company, 21st Century Fox, was until mid-2013 part of the same company as News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal.

The latest "Ice Age" was likely hit by oversaturation in the children's movie marketplace; animated holdovers "The Secret Life of Pets" drew in $29.3 million and "Finding Dory" brought in $7.2 million.

The animated franchise about animals in the Paleolithic Era has become a hit overseas, though, even as its domestic receipts have declined. The last movie in the series, "Ice Age: Continental Drift," took in $715 million from foreign markets while grossing $161 million in North America.

"Ice Age: Collision Course" has taken in $178 million in overseas box office, with some major box-office territories like China still to come. Its world-wide gross "won't be as robust as last time" but will still be dominated by overseas performance, said Chris Aronson, Fox's president of domestic distribution.

"Star Trek Beyond" is also counting on overseas audiences, some of whom have grown familiar with the 50-year-old property only recently, said Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount. It has grossed about $30 million in markets that represent about half the global box office.

Paramount has tried to acquaint overseas audiences with the franchise as its sequels have come out, said Mr. Moore. It should receive some help promoting the movie in China when it opens there in September since the country's Alibaba Pictures Group and Huahua Media are financial partners on the film.

"When you look at the U.S. market, [sequel performance] is definitely a notch lower," said Mr. Moore. Paramount announced last week it was making a fourth "Star Trek" movie.

The weekend's other new release, "Lights Out," a horror film about a family terrorized by a demon that only appears in the dark, opened to a strong $21.6 million in third place. Adapted from first-time filmmaker David Sandberg's short film on the concept, "Lights Out" was released by Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. and cost only $5 million to make.

Of all the new releases, audiences liked "Star Trek Beyond" best, giving it an "A-" grade, according to the CinemaScore market research firm. "Ice Age" received a "B+" and "Lights Out" got a "B."

Year-to-date box office is up 2.3%, according to comScore.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 24, 2016 22:55 ET (02:55 GMT)

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