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Paramount’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem cut through to second place on its opening day Wednesday with $10.2M at 3,513 theaters in what was another day led by Warner Bros.’ Barbie with $12.8M.
Barbie with already $394.5M in the bank stateside will cross the $400M mark today on her 14th day in release (I previously mis-counted), besting the 18-day runs to that box office benchmark of Top Gun: Maverick and Super Mario Bros Movie which crossed that domestic point in 18 days.
Paramount is still spotting low to mid $30M for the Nickelodeon/Point Grey animated Turtles movie which got an A CinemaScore by moviegoers. Others believe it could easily go north of $40M. Wednesday’s number includes the $3.85M the pic made in its Tuesday previews.
On the upside, Mutant Mayhem made more in its opening day than the first Friday of the previous animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, TMNT, back in 2007; that pic doing $8.7M and a 3-day of $24.2M. TMNT also had an A- CinemaScore, but was panned by critics at 36%. Mutant Mayhem has won reviewers over at 94% certified fresh.
I’m told there’s no comps for Mutant Mayhem when it comes to animated movies opening on a non-holiday Wednesday, so let’s look at the closest thing we got: cartoon movies that debuted on a Wednesday, but over a holiday. Mutant Mayhem‘s first day isn’t far from Sing‘s $11M Wednesday which turned into $55.8M 5-day boasted by Christmas, and it’s ahead of Sing 2‘s $8.1M which did $39.5M over 5 days, also fueled by Christmas. Anyway, Mutant Mayhem is finding its way in a marketplace dominated by Barbie and Oppenheimer, the latter seeing $5.7M yesterday for a running total of $194.1M. This weekend, Oppenheimer will overtake the domestic box office gross for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins ($206.8M).