British actor Simon Pegg believes the "Star Trek" films are unable to do good business at the box office because they are not marketed well by the studio, Paramount Pictures.
The 50-year-old actor starred alongside Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana as part of the three latest films in the sci-fi fantasy series -- "Star Trek" (2009), "Star Trek Into Darkness" (2013) and "Star Trek Beyond" (2016).
The studio has since been trying to green light a fourth film but the talks have so far remained inconclusive.
In an interview with GamesRadar Plus and Total Film, Pegg admitted that the movies are not performing well commercially despite being mounted on big budgets.
"The fact is, 'Star Trek' movies don't make Marvel money. They make maybe USD 500 million at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they've set themselves, is USD 200 million. You have to make three times that to make a profit," the actor said.
He said, with "Star Trek Beyond", Paramount Pictures did not capitalise on the buzz around the franchise's 50th anniversary for the film's promotions.
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The death of co-star Anton Yelchin in June 2016 also dealt a blow to morale of the cast, Pegg added.
"I don't feel like the last one... They didn't really take advantage of the 50th anniversary. The regimen at the time dropped the ball on the promo of the film. And we've lost momentum.
"I think losing Anton was a huge blow to our little family, and our enthusiasm to do another one might have been affected by that. So I don't know," the actor said.