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Released
1979 · FILM

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Captain James T. Kirk must reunite his crew aboard the newly refitted Enterprise to confront a mysterious, planet‑devouring alien force and prevent it from annihilating Earth.

“The human adventure is just beginning.”

Directed by
Robert Wise, Douglas Trumbull
Written by
Harold Livingston, Alan Dean Foster
Rated
MPA · PG
Runtime
143 min
AdventureMysterySci-Fi

Synopsis

When an unidentified alien destroys three powerful Klingon cruisers, Captain James T. Kirk returns to the newly transformed U.S.S. Enterprise to take command.

Credits

Actors
Editor
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Writers
Directors

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How many hands made this film

The scale of the collaboration

A crew of 684+ credited

Why a floor?

This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.

Craft leads on file

Edited by Todd C RamsayShot by Richard H KlineScored by Jerry GoldsmithDesigned by Harold MichelsonSound by Richard L AndersonVFX by Daren Dochterman

Box Office

1979 · Box office

✅ Made its money back — grossed 3.2× its budget

Why 2.5×?

Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).

Worldwide gross

$139.3M

Budget$44.0M
Worldwide gross$139.3M
break-even (2.5×)

US & Canada: $82.3M — 59% of worldwide · International: $57.1M (41%)

Opening weekend: $11.9M — 14% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.

Opening week (7-day): $17.1M — 21% of its US & Canada run.

Peak 857 theaters

Compare across the franchise →

Re-release box office

2019627 theaters
$566K($733K today)

Domestic gross earned in theatrical re-release, by year · adjusted for inflation

Versions & cuts

  • The Director's Edition· 136 min
  • Unfinished 1979· 131 min · 1979
  • TV· 143 min

Also known as

  • Star Trek - Der Filmde
  • Star Trek: The Motion Pictureen
  • Star Trek, le filmfr
  • Star Trekit
  • (Bulgarian)Star Trek: Филмът
Release dates around the world3 countries · show
  • United StatesDec 6, 1979
  • United KingdomDec 15, 1979
  • AustraliaDec 21, 1979

Production & Distribution

Production companies
Paramount PicturesCentury AssociatesRobert Wise Productions
Distributors
Paramount DistributionCinema International Corporation (CIC)Paramount Pictures
Special effectsFuture General Corporation, Apogee Productions, Magicam, Robert Abel and Associates, Foundation Imaging
Other companiesNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), George Randle Co., Precision Machines, Rourke Engineering, B/G Engineering

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