As Barbenheimer continues to dominate the box office, the enthusiastically reviewed franchise revamp
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is ready to throwdown in theaters. Preview day/night screenings on Tuesday (August 1) earned the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies/Point Grey animated feature $3.85 million (USD). Previews started around 2 p.m.
 |
| Everett Collection |
Box office watchers are predicting the new Turtles adventure — directed by The Mitchells vs. the Machines co-helmer Jeff Rowe, co-directed by Kyler Spears, with Seth Rogen heartily involved as a writer, executive producer and voice star — will make between $30M and $40M over its first five days in release.
In addition to some early cash returns, Mutant Mayhem can bank on good word of mouth from early audiences. The film, which is looking to be the family choice for the long haul into the fall, is tied with Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as the best reviewed animated features of 2023 at 95% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and its current audience score is 94%. More credit to Paramount: It was the only motion picture studio to brave San Diego Comic-Con sans stars, and it showed off reels of the pic to a near-full house in Hall H.
The Turtles officially hit theaters today (August 2), where the movie is currently booked at 3,513 domestic locations across the U.S., and will expand to 3,851 theaters by Friday. The film's wide opening follows exclusive Sneak Preview and Early Access Fan Event screenings on Saturday and Monday, plus an advance taste at Comic-Con.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opens in 24 markets this week, including Germany and the United Kingdom.
The PG film cost $70 million, which is less than recent animated offerings such as Pixar’s $200 million-budgeted Elemental and Sony’s $100 million-budgeted Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies seem to have faith in the film, since they are already
developing a sequel, as well as a two-season Paramount+ series that will serve as a “bridge” between the big screen adventures.
Update (8/15) - This past weekend, Paramount Pictures’
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem took third place in the Box Office charts, earning $15.7 million. The animated feature, which was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Point Grey Productions, has a domestic total of $72.8 million after two weeks of release.
Internationally,
added $10.4M from 47 markets. The heroes on the half-shell have grossed $21.9M to date for $94.7M global with several major markets still to release.
New this session, Mexico debuted at No. 2 with $2.9M, followed by France at $1.8M. In China, the start was a No. 8 $885K amid strong local competition. The UK leads play with $7.2M.
Update (8/8) - Paramount’s
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opened in 24 more international markets this weekend! Internationally, the pic earned $8.5M. The UK ($5M) and Germany ($1M) were the only majors. Markets yet to open include France, Mexico and China this week, followed by Spain and Brazil in August and Australia, Korea and Japan in September.
In the U.S.,
TMNT:MM is
currently fourth place in the Box Office charts. The picture earned $8.3M more on Sunday.
Update (8/7) - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
after a great Saturday of $10.3M, +11% over Friday’s $9.3M, is coming in at $28M over 3-days and $43M, which is still great for this $70M production.
Globally,
Mutant Mayhem opened with a total of $51 million around the world. The majority of that — a big $43 million — came from theaters in North America. The new
TMNT has only opened in roughly 30% of the international markets where it's expected to be released. So that total will continue to climb in the coming weeks.
Turtles is a huge win for the Brian Robbins Paramount administration, particularly as he builds out and revives franchises.
Said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s domestic distribution boss, “We’re over the moon with this opening. We exceeded pre-release expectations with this movie, which has been a labor of love for a long time.”
The decision to revive Turtles happened back in 2018, when Robbins was at Nickelodeon with Ramsey Naito, current president, Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation, and they sparked to the idea of Seth Rogen’s involvement, as well as filmmaker Jeff Rowe — both lifelong fans — who truly wanted to lean into the ‘teenage’ part of the IP. Paramount, like all their movies this year, has gotten behind promoting the animated pic 200%, having Rogen show off extended footage at CineamCon, and a work-in-progress cut at Annecy back in June. Props to Paramount: They were the only studio who realized that there would be a full-house crowd down at San Diego Comic-Con: fans unfazed by the strikes. So they took Turtles down to Hall H and showed off more footage to fans with Rowe in tow, as well as TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman — the latter who just stoked the crowd. Why skip an opportunity? Very smart on the Melrose lot for being fearless and creative sans stars in their promotion. Rival studios, take note.
The second animated take of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak audience score of 88% positive and a 70% recommend, with kids under 12 giving it 94%, and a 69% must-see. That’s enough ooze to keep chugging into the fall. That’s on top of the pic’s already “A” CinemaScore. Men showing up at 60% to women’s 40%, with 56% of the crowd between 18-34. The biggest demo is 18-24 at 34%. Diversity demos are 33% Caucasian, a great 33% Latino and Hispanic, 17% Black, and 16% Asian/other. The South Central and the West are the most robust here for the Nickelodeon/Point Grey production. Oppenheimer still has Imax, but the Turtles have PLFs, which are driving 16% of ticket sales and another 11% from 3D. Adam Aron’s AMC Burbank is the top-grossing movie theater in the nation at $103K-plus so far. Cowabunga.
TMNT:MM saw Canada delivering 5% of the gross with major markets that over-indexed being L.A., Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Austin, while the only major markets that under-indexed were Seattle and Toronto. Top theaters came from L.A., N.Y., Phoenix, Orlando, Dallas, Pharr, Texas, El Paso, Nashville, San Antonio, and Houston.
Social media analytics corp RelishMix says that Turtles’ social media universe is 309.8M across Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok combined. Ahead of release, RelishMix said those stats were under family animated averages. But clearly there’s an appetite here for the movie, as it’s greatly over-performing.
Update (8/6) - The second animated take of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has a Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak audience score of 88% positive and a 70% recommend, with kids under 12 giving it 94%, and a 69% must-see. That’s enough ooze to keep chugging into the fall. That’s on top of the pic’s already “A” CinemaScore.
On Friday, August 5,
Mutant Mayhem took a further $9.3M at the Box Office, and is currently in second place in the charts!
Men showing up at 60% to women’s 40%, with 56% of the crowd between 18-34. The biggest demo is 18-24 at 34%. Diversity demos are 33% Caucasian, a great 33% Latino and Hispanic, 17% Black, and 16% Asian/other. The South Central and the West are the most robust here for the Nickelodeon/Point Grey production. Oppenheimer still has Imax, but the Turtles have PLFs, which are driving 20% of ticket sales and another 11% from 3D. Adam Aron’s AMC Burbank is the top-grossing movie theater in the nation at $75K-plus so far. Cowabunga.
Social media analytics corp RelishMix says that Turtles’ social media universe is 309.8M across Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok combined. Ahead of release, RelishMix said those stats were under family animated averages. But clearly there’s an appetite here for the movie, as it’s greatly over-performing.
Update (8/5) - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem saw its 2-day box office rise to $15.1M. The flick earned a further $4.87M on Thursday (Aug. 3), with the Jeff Rowe-directed animated movie ranking third for the day. The new
TMNT film is looking for a five-day opening of $35 million to $45 million. The film is currently playing at 3,858 theaters, and is projected to make a further $8.5M on Friday, 3-day of $27M, and 5-day of $42M, well ahead of its $30M-$40M expectations. Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 94% to go along with that A CinemaScore.
Update (8/3) - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem collected $10.2 million on opening day, including $3.85 million from Tuesday’s preview screenings.
Paramount and Nickelodeon’s animated adventure is getting a jump on the weekend by debuting on Wednesday. This weekend’s other new release, the Warner Bros. shark sequel Meg 2: The Trench, lands in theaters on Friday. Those films will vie for second place on box office charts alongside Christopher Nolan’s historical drama Oppenheimer, now in its third weekend of release.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie added a leading $12.8 million on Wednesday. The fantasy comedy stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as the stereotypical versions of Barbie and Ken.
Subscribe to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles OFFICIAL YouTube channel - the ultimate home for all things TMNT! Here you’ll find Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello’s best moments from all your favorite
TMNT series. Join the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their fight against evil, and be the first to get notified of exclusive original content you won’t find anywhere else!
https://at.nick.com/TMNTSubscribe
Originally published: August 03, 2023.
