Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are facing off against Barbie at the box office.
Paramount’s animated adventure ”Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is projected to pick up $35 million to $45 million in its first five days of release. But those ticket sales won’t be enough to dethrone “Barbie,” which is expected to top the box office for a third weekend in a row.
Greta Gerwig’s colorful fantasy comedy is eyeing $45 million to $50 million between Friday and Sunday, another huge result for the plastic fantastic blockbuster. It’s already the second-highest grossing movie of the year with $381.6 million in North America.
The animation is vividly textured, the beat is persistently hip-hop (Lauryn Hill, De La Soul, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and others pack the electronic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) and the New York of the film is impressively detailed. But the most important twist to this “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” iteration may be diving into the teenage-ness of its 15-year-old turtles.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” already collected $3.85 million from Tuesday’s preview screenings. 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.” Still, “Mutant Mayhem” needs to stick around in theaters beyond opening weekend to justify the production budget. With great reviews and positive word-of-mouth, the movie is hoping to benefit from kids who are out of school for summer vacation.
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.
