The first weekend in June 2016 played out mostly as expected, with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows taking the #1 spot followed by last weekend’s first place finisher, X-Men: Apocalypse. Warner’s Me Before You, however, did manage to break out well above expectations while Universal’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping may have received great reviews, but couldn’t find much of an audience. Overall, the weekend was a wash compared to last year with estimates for the top twelve coming in just $56,118 higher than last year’s actuals, but there are still some highlights to discuss despite something of a slow start to a sequel driven June.
Paramount’s Ninja Turtles 2 brought in an estimated $35.25 million, which, as discussed in our weekend preview, puts the film pretty much right on the average for so many of today’s sequels based on the original film’s performance. In the case of Ninja Turtles, this is a 46% drop from the 2014 film’s $65.5 million opening. Considering the $135 million budget for Turtles 2 is $10 million more than was spent on the original, that’s not exactly what the studio was hoping for when they flipped the green light.
The sequel is now looking to bring in $90 million or so domestically, which is around $100 million less than the original. Of course, box office grosses are just half the story with a film like this as ancillary merchandise is a big revenue driver for a film of this sort. From a demographics perspective, the film did score an “A-” CinemaScore and audience members under the age of 18 made up 40% of the audience and scored the film with an “A”. In all, 52% of the audience was under 25 and 54% male vs. 48% female.
In addition to its domestic total, Ninja Turtles 2 also opened in 40 international markets and earned an estimated $34 million. The UK delivered the highest returns with an estimated $5.3 million followed by Russia ($4.8m), Mexico ($4.5m), Indonesia ($2.3m) and Malaysia ($2.2m). The movie will continue to expand throughout the month and will release in China on July 2 where the first film brought in over $62 million.
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