Never again will August be seen as the summer dumping ground for movies that studios have little confidence in. Last week, "Guardians Of The Galaxy" proved that all bets were off with a record breaking debut, and this past weekend "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" showed that August audiences are ready to plunk down their hard-earned for late-summer blockbusters. Despite savage reviews —19% from Rotten Tomatoes, 33 from Metacritic— ‘TMNT’ proved that a familiar property will motivate ticketbuyers, earning a whopping $65 million in its opening weekend. Of course, a sequel will follow…
THR reports that Paramount has re-upped screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec to pen "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2" (or whatever it will be called). This is no "wait-and-see-how-the-script-turns-out" scenario, as the studio has also stamped a June 3 2016 release date for the movie. That weekend will pit the sequel against Seth Rogen’s raunchy animated comedy "Sausage Party," and the film will land in theaters between "X-Men: Apocalypse" the week before and video game adaptation "Uncharted" the week after. That’s confidence.
No word yet on plot details or if Jonathan Liebesman will be back to direct, but it’s a low bar to clear for all involved, because certainly nothing can be worse than "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze"….right? Anyway, check out the trailer for that abomination below, following this weekend’s top ten tally.
1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – $65 million
2. Guardians Of The Galaxy – $41.5 million ($175 mil.)
3. Into The Storm – $18 million
4. The Hundred-Foot Journey – $11.1 million
5. Lucy – $9 million ($97.3 mil.)
6. Step Up: All In – $6.5 million
7. Hercules – $5.7 million ($63.4 mil.)
8. Get On Up – $5 million ($22.9 mil.)
9. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes – $4.4 million ($197.8 mil.)
10. Planes: Fire & Rescue – $2.4 million ($52.9 mil.)