Despite universally poor reviews and more animated lips than any turtle should have, the Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out on top of the box office for the second weekend in a row. This after the turtles brought in a giant $65 million during their opening weekend just seven days ago.
Somehow Bay’s exploitation of your childhood memories topped Guardians of the Galaxy again, proving once more that nostalgia can a pretty big determinate for what people are interested in seeing in theaters. TMNT and Guardians made $28.4 million and $24.7 million respectively based on studio estimates.
The movie’s success, coupled with the success of Nickelodeon’s slightly less creepy cartoon reboot of the series point to a world about to be overtaken yet again by the craze that started all the way back in 1984 with a comic book about four pizza-loving turtles. There is already a sequel in the works and even Build-a-Bear is getting in on the turtles mania while the going is good.
In an interview with Screen Rant, TMNT director Jonathan Liebsman hinted that the impending sequel could take place in Dimension X – the heavily sci-fi inspired realm ruled by the evil Kraang in the turtles mythos. When asked if he’d ever consider doing it he stated simply:
F*ck yes
Hollywood’s other big film debut featuring scaly old characters that were popular in the 80’s, The Expendables 3, flubbed it’s opening weekend. By bringing in only $16.2 million it fell to fourth place behind Let’s Be Cops which brought in $17.7 million for 20th Century Fox.
That small debut weekend for The Expendables 3 marks the lowest of any film in the franchise’s short lifetime. Despite all that, there are still rumors of an Expendables 4 floating around, but nothing has been confirmed.
Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
