Box Office Preview: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Aims for $35 Million Debut, ‘The Meg 2’ Swimming to $30 Million

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Will “Blue Beetle,” the latest DC superhero adaptation, knock down “Barbie” at the domestic box office? It may be a closer-than-expected race between the two Warner Bros. releases for the top spot, despite “Barbie” entering its fifth weekend in theaters. “Blue Beetle,” starring Xolo Maridueña as the alien symbiote, is targeting $25 million to $32 million in its debut.

In what is poised to be a case of Warner Bros beating itself for the No. 1 spot at the box office this coming weekend, the studio’s new DC superhero title, Blue Beetle, is poised to halt Barbie‘s three-weekend streak with a $28M-$32M opening. Barbie, meanwhile per industry sources, is looking at a $22M-$24M fourth weekend, -30%. Through Monday, the Greta Gerwig directed Mattel doll feature counts $531.2M.

EXCLUSIVE: With the new animated version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Paramount has vibrantly revived the near 40-year-old Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird-conceived comic IP for another generation: As the pic barrels toward $100M at the global box office, Deadline hears from sources that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles brand is heading toward $1 billion+ in global retail sales. 

Brent Lang Executive Editor “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” sank without a trace over its opening weekend, going to a watery grave with just $6.5 million. The period horror film, which centers on one chapter of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” namely the bit where his coffin gets transported from Transylvania to England, was distributed by Universal. It’s the studio’s second stab at reviving the world’s most famous vampire, with last spring’s “Renfield,” a campy take on the bloodsucker, also collapsing at the box office.

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.This week, it surpassed the $500 million mark, making its director Greta Gerwig the highest earning female director ever at the domestic box office, beating the record held by “Frozen II‘s” Jennifer Lee.The movie is so popular that searches for the baby name “Barbie” have increased by a staggering 603% since April, when its trailer was released.“Oppenheimer,” which was in fourth place last week, moved back up to the No. 2 spot with $5.1 million in sales.This week, the Christopher Nolan filmbecame the highest grossing ever at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre in the location’s 97-year history, according to Deadline.

The animators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem were taken care of by not being overworked. Director Jeff Rowe and producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made sure the staff could work on the animated movie while continuing to maintain a good work-life balance.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Meg 2: The Trench,” the second Jason Statham-led shark thriller, is swimming to $112 million in its international box office debut, bringing its global total to $142 million. It’s a strong start for the $130 million-budgeted film, which was co-financed by Warner Bros. and China Media Capital.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Barbie” towered over the box office for the third consecutive weekend, taking down newcomers “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and “Meg 2: The Trench.” Grega Gerwig’s fantasy comedy added a remarkable $52 million in its third weekend of release, a decline of just 43% from its prior frame. “Barbie” has generated $459 million in North America and will imminently cross the $1 billion mark globally. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” too, stayed strong in its third outing with $28.7 million, dropping only 39% from last weekend and bringing domestic ticket sales to $228 million.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Meg 2: The Trench” sunk its pearly whites into $3.2 million in Thursday previews, as the followup to the 2018 Jason Statham hit is hoping to premiere to $30 million. Critics have feasted on the film, giving it a dreadful 28% “rotten” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the pulverizing reviews may not have much impact on audiences who don’t turn up to these type of movies out of a desire to see a pioneering work of cinema. Instead, they’ll get a chance to witness a 75-foot-long megalodon, and other sea creatures who prefer human flesh to plankton, make short work of a group of scientists.

Despite a strong opening for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”, the plastic-and-pink “Barbie” remains the crowned winner of Wednesday night’s box office.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” collected $10.2 million on opening day, including $3.85 million from Tuesday’s preview screenings. Paramount and Nickelodeon’s animated adventure is getting a jump on the weekend by debuting on Wednesday. This weekend’s other new release, the Warner Bros.

, but this time there's one major difference — the titular turtles are actually played by teenagers!«They're often middle-aged men doing Teenage-Voiced Mutant Ninja Turtles,» joked Seth Rogen when he sat down with ET's Will Marfuggi to talk about how a life-long love of the titular turtles led to writing and producing the latest installment in the long-running franchise.«I was really the target audience for the first iteration of all this stuff,» he explained, noting that he watched the cartoons and movies as a kid and was «obsessed» with the toys. «My dad bought like, a big box of used toys at a garage sale when I was a kid, and so I had those and I played with them so much.»However, Rogen admitted, «I always thought that the 'Teenage' part of it was weirdly under-explored, you know?»For his movie, the star added in more details about the turtles' desire to be just regular teens, and wanted the cast to be made up of voice actors that were closer in age to their characters than past iterations.star Brady Noon, 17, is Raphael, the bravest and strongest — but also most impulsive — of his brothers, who wears a red mask and fights with two pronged sai weapons.

Marvel Cinematic Universe limps along and DC attempts a second act, the best superhero movies are actually coming from the world of animation.Sony’s innovative “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse” and superb sequel “Across The Spider-Verse” served the tired genre a much-needed double shot of espresso. And now, far more unexpectedly, Paramount’s awesome “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” has tossed it a rallying Red Bull — alongside, naturally, a slice of pepperoni.Running time: 99 minutes.

One of this summer’s biggest surprises is the pure entertainment to be found scene-by-scene in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” an inspired take on a once-blockbuster property that had previously been collecting dust in the IP toy box.

Looking to find its way and pull boys in, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is getting a mid-week start here with previews yesterday grossing $3.85M. Showtimes started at 2PM for the Jeff Rowe-directed feature and the outlook is $30M over 5-days for the net $70M production. Some trackers have it at $40M. Mutant Mayheim is booked at 3,513 locations today and will expand to 3,851 theaters by Friday.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem has been revealed — check out all the songs from the new animation below.Directed by Jeff Rowe and produced/written by “permanent teenager” Seth Rogen, Mutant Mayhem is Paramount’s latest attempt to bring the crime-fighting turtles to the big screen. It boasts and all-star voice cast, including Rogen himself, Jackie Chan, Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, and Maya Rudolph, while the titular reptiles are voiced by newcomer teenagers.The official synopsis for the film reads: “After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It seemed like the end of the road for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” The popular kids franchise had inspired a half-dozen movies of declining quality, with the live-action 2016 adventure “Out of the Shadows” suffering from the kind of withering reviews and bad box office returns that derail a film series. But Paramount and Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins and Nickelodeon Animation and Paramount Animation president Ramsey Naito had an offbeat idea for how they could make the Turtles cool again. That involved tapping Seth Rogen and his producing partner Evan Goldberg, the duo behind “Superbad” and “This is the End,” to give the characters an adolescent flair.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic It started as a joke. Way back in the ’80s, the phenomenon we now call “superhero fatigue” was already a thing, at least among comics afficionados. Frustrated with pulp creators recycling the same old ideas, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird hatched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

In a summer where the off-the-boards success of original movies like Barbie and Oppenheimer is all the rage, the 7th-or so feature film iteration of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise wasn’t one with great expectations – except when you read the credit block and discover the cowriters and producers are none other than Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and the director is Jeff Rowe who most recently was an Oscar nominee for the wildly inventive animated hit, The Mitchells Vs The Machines.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies are developing a sequel to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and planning a two-season series that will serve as a “bridge” between the films. The spinoff series will appear on Paramount+.