Turtle Power, it seems, has prevailed at the box office this weekend. Despite being panned by critics across the Internet (with a few exceptions, including our very own review of the film), Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had a strong opening weekend, topping off at $65 million domestically, for a combined $93.7 million box office take worldwide. The performance of the hard-shelled heroes at the box office was so favorable, in fact, that Entertainment Weekly reports that Paramount Pictures has already greenlit a sequel for June 3, 2016 release.
As predicted, Turtles was able to oust Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy, which premiered last weekend, from its number one box office position. Still, Guardians took the number two slot, bringing in $41.5 million domestically, which was on track with projected returns for the movie’s second week in theaters.
While the movie’s chief target audience seemed to be kids, Turtles‘ success can also likely be attributed to the affection and nostalgia older audiences have for the characters and the stories from the 30-year-old franchise that spans several different media.
The sequel’s release date will put it in close competition with X-Men: Apocalypse, the follow-up to this summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which will debut a week before TMNT 2. Mutants versus mutants a-go-go!
No word whether Vanilla Ice will make an appearance encouraging the Turtles to “go ninja, go ninja, go.” Even money is that he’ll help renovate the mutants’ sewer lair on his DIY Network series.