Ninja Turtles Come in First with a Soft Opening, Stopping the Apocalypse

Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_Out_of_the_Shadows_posterIt was a Mutant vs Mutant battle for the top of the box office this past weekend.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows was the top of the box office earning an estimated $35.3 million. That’s just 46% of the 2014 original film’s opening weekend. It opened with $65.5 million. However the sequel cost $135 million, $10 million more than the original. The film also brought in an estimated $34 million in foreign markets for a total of $69.3 million. Paramount may be nervous seeing those numbers, but the film did get an A- Cinemascore though is just 35% at Rotten Tomatoes (with 62% of the audience liking it).

The film bumped previous week’s champ X-Men: Apocalypse into second. The film earned an estimated $22.3 million to bring its domestic total to $116.5 million. The film has also earned $286 million in foreign markets for a total of $402.5 million. The film seems to not be performing well domestically, but internationally, that’s not the case. It had the second largest Fox opening in China. The foreign markets is what will likely drive the film’s success.

Coming in third place was new film Me Before You which earned $18.3 million. Also debuting was Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping which came in eighth with $4.6 million.

Also of note, Zootopia crossed the billion dollar mark, the second film of the year to do so, so far.

In comic movie news, Captain America: Civil War added $7.6 million to its domestic total. The film stands at $388.9 million domestically and $1.132 billion worldwide. Deadpool is still opening in locations, the latest being Japan where it earned an estimated $6.48 million.

This coming weekend we’ve got a few interesting films opening. The Conjuring 2, Now You See Me 2, and Warcraft will all open domestically. It’s unknown how that’ll play out and if the films will find their own distinct audiences, cannibalize each other, or one will break out.