Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles dominated the box office this weekend with a $65 million box-office opening weekend.
Marvel Studio’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ could not compete with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After nearly twenty years since the last TMNT major motion picture, the foursome returns making 65 million dollars in the first three days. Guardians of the Galaxy could barely hang on, bringing in $41.5 million.
Despite criticism and below average reviews, producer Michael Bay showed the world once again that he knows what people want to see in the movies. According to TheWrap, many analysts expected the movie to open to a low $45 million with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy as the number one movie in the box-office.
With producer Michael Bay and director Jonathan Liebesman giving the gang a muscular special-effects update, “Ninja Turtles” blew past the expectations of analysts, who had the turtle tale opening at around $45 million. [TheWrap]
This is the second hit movie for Michael Bay. “Transformers: Age of Extinction” opener made $100 million over the course of three days and is the only movie this year to make a billion dollars globally.
According to LATimes, it all came down to the marketing efforts of Paramount Pictures.
Though critics shelled “Turtles” — with a mere 19% positive rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website — audiences were more upbeat, giving the film an average grade of B, according to polling firm CinemaScore. Even before the weekend was over, Paramount announced it was moving ahead with a sequel, which is slated for June 2016.
“The X factor was that families turned out in a really big way,” Megan Colligan, Paramount’s president of domestic marketing and distribution, said Sunday. “Certainly with the hit [animated] TV show and a very popular property, kids were enthusiastic. The key for us was getting parents to be as enthusiastic. And they were.”
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