‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Continues To Pounce At The Box Office – Here’s How


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continues to be one of the biggest surprise hits of the summer. And while the movie has been shunned by critics and nostalgia seekers alike, it looks as if the Turtles will remain atop the box office yet again this weekend.

As reported by Inquistr, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took on the third installment of the Sylvester Stallone lead franchise The Expendables this weekend. And according to Entertainment Weekly, the Friday numbers showed just how dominant “Turtle Power” really is, raking in a cool $8 million at the box office ahead of the Expendables 3 at $5.88 million.

So how did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles overcome poor reviews from critics to reclaim their place atop pop culture some 30 years after their initial creation? Daily Digest News thinks nostalgia may be the answer:

“Maybe it’s the whole nostalgia effect but there is something undeniably appealing about the Turtles movie which has fans flocking to see it. It got a low rating from critics but even that couldn’t keep people away.”

Forbes meanwhile, places credit for the Turtles victory entirely on the shoulders of the marketing geniuses at Paramount. Touting a “less-is-more” philosophy behind their public push of the movie, Forbes details the low-key methods in which Paramount re-introduced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles back to the masses:

“Paramount patiently waited until their own big summer tent pole was about to drop. And then, just as was standard practice in the not-so-distant past, they dropped the full trailer alongside the worldwide release of Transformers: Age of Extinction.”

Forbes continued:

“The second trailer showed off more action, including a visual reveal of Shredder and a jokey nod to fans’ outrage over allegedly altered origins. More importantly, said trailer was seen by pretty much every moviegoer who bought a ticket to the $100 million debut weekend of Transformers: Age of Extinction. Once again, it was a perfect demographic group for the specific audience Paramount was targeting.”

From there, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles eventually went on to debut at $65 million in it’s opening weekend. That it appeals to both thirty-somethings looking to recapture their youth or a new generation raised on the brand new Nickelodeon CGI version speaks to the allure of the property itself.

As Forbes puts it, “you don’t have to drown the fans and the media in spoiler-filled trailers and clips starting many months in advance in order to secure that much-desired mega-opening weekend.”

And that in-and-of-itself is a victory for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles image courtesy Movie Pilot]

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