After a couple of big weeks for Barbie and Oppenheimer, more competition is on the way looking to close out the summer movie season. While The Haunted Mansion faltered as a horror-themed film in July, in addition to following the Barbenheimer phenomenon, another family film with more of a buffer, and a more successful history under its belt, is ready to throw its hat into the ring. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem debuts this August with a newer interpretation of the popular heroes in a half-shell.
Deadline reports that the new film from producer Seth Rogen opened to Tuesday previews with $3.8 million and is projected to have a 5-day performance of around $30 million. According to trackers, some even predict the animated comedy to make it to $40 million. The Tuesday showings started at 2 PM and officially starts today at 3,513 screens and will be expanding to 3,851 by Friday. The production for the film totaled $70 million, which should put it on pace to be quite a humble hit unless there is a massive explosion in attendance this weekend.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem does have a lot going for it as it has the nostalgic appeal of the intellectual property with older millennials who grew up with the 1987 original animated series, as well as fans of Seth Rogen, and an animation style that has been reminding audiences of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The movie has already been gathering a positive buzz with a 94% audience score, and Paramount Pictures weathered the absence of their stars at San Diego Comic-Con due to the SAG strike and offered up reels of footage to a packed house for their panel at Hall H.
Meanwhile, Disney’s second attempt at adapting Haunted Mansion underperformed with $24 million on opening weekend, which actually is less business than the 2003 Eddie Murphy film that had opened with just $2K more. Unfortunately, a lot was working against this film and with Mutant Mayhem and The Meg 2, the competition for audiences looks to be really tight.
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