Entertainment

'TMNT' Beats Out 'Guardians' At Weekend Box Office

Paramount's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" blew away weekend box office predictions with its $65 million debut weekend.

'TMNT' Beats Out 'Guardians' At Weekend Box Office
Paramount Pictures / "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"
SMS

Just a week ago we had headlines describing a  "Summer Bummer" and "Box-Office Slump" or — but it looks as if Hollywood's "Summer of Doom" was predicted a little too soon.

Last week, Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" blew up the box office records with its $94 million debut weekend and now we have these guys...

"If you do, we will find you."

Yeah, if you do, we will find you. I'm sorry that came across as super creepy...we will find you though!"

​Yup, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" beat box office expectations this week reigning in $65 million during its own debut weekend — it even beat out "Guardians'" $41.5 million for its second weekend. 

The Hollywood Reporter says the expectations for the movie were between $50 and $55 million, and the fact that it beat those expectations shows how much people are craving family-friendly movies on the silver screen. 

The writer also says almost half of the audience was under 25 with 61 percent of that audience being male — which makes sense seeing as how younger folks would be the most likely to have been fans of the TV series in the late 80s and early 90s. 

A Forbes writer notes the secret to Paramount's success was one thing — its timing: 

"They dropped the first teaser on the opening weekend of Captain America ... Then they waited, not dropping another wholly new trailer until the end of June right in time to be attached to their own Transformers ​... guaranteeing that every single ticket-buyer to Michael Bay’s fourth robot-smashing adventure would see the second TMNT trailer."

And Digital Journal points out that the success of "Guardians" may have actually helped, too: "When one movie does well it can help the next film that opens the following weekend do pretty darn good, too. Many times going to a movie becomes trendy or a habit. When one goes, the need to go again is deeper."

But even with the huge debut weekend success of "Guardians" and the new "Ninja Turtles" reboot, the box office isn't quite out of the dumps just yet.

While the overall weekend was up somewhere around 17 percent from last year, The Wrap writes that the season so far is still down 15 percent from last year.

Unlike Marvel, Paramount waited until after their movie's success to announce a sequel. It will be directed by Micheal Bay again and is scheduled for June 3, 2016. 

This video contains images from Getty Images.