hive and the "crash 'n' burn lounge". The film received a royal premiere in the United Kingdom, with the first screening attended by Charles, Prince of Wales. Box officeFirst Contact opened in 2,812 theaters beginning November 22, grossing $30.7 million its first week and making it the top movie at the US box office. The film was knocked out of the top place the following week by 101 Dalmatians, earning $25.5 million. The film went on to gross $77 million in its first four weeks, remaining in the top-ten box office during that time. It closed with a US & Canadian gross of $92,027,888 and an international gross of $54 million for a total of $146 million worldwide.First Contact opened in Britain on December 13, 1996, at number two and was the first Star Trek film not to reach number one in that market since The Wrath of Khan. It was still a box office success, earning £8,735,340 to become the highest grossing film in the series in that territory until the release of the Star Trek reboot film in 2009. The film was the best-performing Star Trek film in international markets until 2009's Star Trek film, and Paramount's best showing in markets such as New Zealand, making $315,491 from 28 sites by year's end. Critical responseFirst Contact garnered positive reviews on release. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F. Ryan Gilbey of The Independent considered the film wise to dispense with the cast of The Original Series: "For the first time, a Star Trek movie actually looks like something more ambitious than an extended TV show," he wrote. Conversely, critic Bob Thompson felt that First Contact was more in the spirit of the 1960s television series than any previous installment. The Globe and Mail Elizabeth Renzeti said that First Contact succeeded in improving on the "stilted" previous entry in the series, and that it featured a renewed interest in storytelling. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "First Contact does everything you'd want a Star Trek film to do, and it does it with cheerfulness and style." Adrian Martin of The Age noted that the film was geared towards pleasing fans: "Strangers to this fanciful world first delineated by Gene Roddenberry will just have to struggle to comprehend as best they can," he wrote, but "cult-followers will be in