The latest adaptation of a half-century-old sci-fi series last week sailed over its Chinese box-office competition, most of which involved unusual encounters with animals.

“Star Trek Beyond” pulled in $23 million the first full week of September, according to film industry consulting firm Artisan Gateway. The movie earned $31.5 million in three days the previous week, when it beamed into the country.

The 13th “Trek” film should beat the Chinese box office of “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which came out in 2013 and grossed $57 million, about 12% of its $467-million haul. This time, Paramount Pictures got help from Chinese backers Alibaba Pictures and Huahua Media. Total sales already have reached almost $55 million.

The fantasy-adventure movie brought in nearly three times as much as its new runner-up, Columbia Pictures’ “The Shallows,” a survival thriller about a female surfer pursued by a great white shark. The man vs. animal film, which features Blake Lively, came out Friday in China and made $8.5 million.


The other new release, EuropaCorp’s “Nine Lives,” clawed at its heels with $8.3 million. Kevin Spacey stars in the French comedy about a man whose mind is trapped inside a cat’s body.

“Ice Age: Collision Course,” 20th Century Fox’s fifth computer-animated comedy adventure about the lives of several feisty animals, dropped from second to fourth place with $4.3 million. “Parasyte,” a Japanese film by Toho International that explores ones boy’s struggle with alien parasites, grossed $3.1 million.

Meyers is a special correspondent.