‘Mutant Mayhem’ Adds $15.8M Domestic, $10.4M Abroad In Its Second Weekend In Cinemas

Paramount Pictures’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem took third place at the domestic box office over its sophomore weekend, earning an estimated $15.8 million.

Directed by Jeff Rowe, the latest installment in the TMNT universe has grossed $72.8M after its first two weeks in North American cinemas. That total is just $10M short of the lifetime domestic gross of 2016’s live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the last theatrical feature entry in the franchise. Mutant Mayhem’ domestic gross is already well beyond the total haul of the last fully-animated Turtles feature to get a theatrical run, 2007’s TMNT, which grossed $54.1M.

Mutant Mayhem was produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Point Grey Productions with a bargain budget of $70M. That’s especially impressive given that Rowe and producer Seth Rogan were careful not to overwork the artists at Mikros Animation in Paris and Canada and Cinesite Vancouver who worked on the film. (For a much deeper dive into the economics of this summer’s animated features check out this article from last week).

The Turtle’s strong first two weeks came against mega competition with Barbie and Oppenheimer still both going strong. That said, there isn’t much by way of kids and family competition, even less so if we narrow it down to just animation. Disney’s live-action film The Haunted Mansion has been a colossal flop and Pixar’s Elemental has dropped from the top 10, although it made another $713,000 in its ninth week. Meanwhile the box office run of Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is on the last of its eight legs and the film only screened in 258 North American theaters over the weekend compared to 3,950 for Mutant Mayhem.

Globally, the Turtles finished the weekend in fifth place, bringing in $10.4M from offshore markets. Its total worldwide gross for the weekend was $26.2M, bringing the film’s box office cume to $94.7M after two weeks, with several major international market debuts still to come.