By Todd Cunningham
TheWrap

"Star Trek Into Darkness" zoomed to $84 million in its North American debut this weekend and knocked "Iron Man 3" out of the top spot, but couldn't ascend to box-office hyper-space.

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J.J. Abrams space epic sequel's opening was the year's third-best, but its $70.5 million three-day total was less than the $75 million that "Star Trek" debuted to four years ago. And its four-day total was well short of the $100 million that Paramount, Skydance Pictures and Abrams' Bad Robot Productions had hoped to bring in.

"Into Darkness" opened in 33 foreign markets as well this weekend, and the $40 million that the film brought in took some of the sting out of the domestic results. It has taken in more than $80 million from overseas, and $164.5 million worldwide.

"The good news is, when you have a really good movie like this one, the word of mouth is going to bring the audience in over time," Paramount's head of distribution Don Harris told TheWrap Sunday. "We think that big-picture, we're in a very good place, particularly when you consider how well it's doing overseas." See more