Paramount executives are yelling cowabunga! this morning as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Thursday night box office results exceeded expectations and forced the studio to up its weekend estimates for the reboot event picture. Nostalgia and awareness for the turtles via the ongoing Nickelodeon animated series and hot selling Playmates toy line are helping to drive franchise fans to see the new film.
The Michael Bay-produced film starring Megan Fox, Will Arnett and William Fichtner debuted at approximately 2,651 locations on Thursday night and wrapped up $4.6 million in domestic ticket sales through midnight. That puts it above Disney’s Maleficent ($4 million, $69.4 million opening weekend) and Fox’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ($4.1 million, $72.6 million opening weekend) Thursday night openings.
Paramount doesn’t expect the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie to reach the opening weekend heights of those films, but they have raised their weekend estimates from $40-$45 million into the $45-$50 million range. How high TMNT rises will be dependent upon word of mouth and how many potential moviegoers holdover and direct competition Guardians of the Galaxy pulls in. The film is currently scoring an abysmal 21 percent approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
If Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles suffers a weekend drop then Guardians of the Galaxy will be in a position to win the weekend. Even with Paramount’s revised projection, Guardians is pacing for the same range and could outperform estimates in the same manner it did for its opening last weekend.
Read our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles review.
On Friday, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will expand to approximately 3,800 locations. Competition aside from Guardians of the Galaxy includes fellow newcomers Into the Storm, the Hundred-Foot Journey, and Step Up All In. Friday estimates will be available early Saturday morning so check back to see how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is pacing on its opening day.
Watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles beatbox in an elevator.
