The summer box office season may have reached the dog days of August, but it’s hardly looked stronger over the past few months. Though the openings of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” and “Meg 2: The Trench” won’t be able to take down “Barbie” as the top performer in North America, both new releases are boosting theaters to a weekend with four different features grossing north of $25 million.
Paramount Pictures’ “Mutant Mayhem” added $9.3 million on Friday, tracking neck-and-neck with “Oppenheimer” for second place on domestic charts. The animated feature, produced by Nickelodeon Movies and Point Grey Productions, opened with Tuesday evening preview screenings and is now tracking for a $42 million five-day debut — squarely within the projections of $35 million to $45 million heading into the weekend.
That’s not shabby at all for the “TMNT” entry,” which cost only $70 million to produce — an especially economical figure for an animated studio release. Paramount has managed to capitalize on strong buzz; the film’s both an effective nostalgia play and a modern spin on the ’80s property. The 90% approval rating from top critics on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes brought momentum into the weekend, and the glowing “A” grade through research firm Cinema Score shows early audiences are digging the latest adventures of Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo. As the summer season winds down, “Mutant Mayhem” should find some steady play.
The “TMNT” entry features a celebrity voice cast including Jackie Chan, Ayo Edebiri, Post Malone, Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, John Cena, Ice Cube and Seth Rogen, plus a group of young stars — Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon — voicing the Turtle Brothers, emphasizing the first “T” of “TMNT.” Jeff Rowe directs.
Meanwhile, “Meg 2: The Trench” chowed down on $12 million on its opening day, a figure that includes $3.2 million in Thursday previews. The hungry, hungry sequel is still tracking for an opening with a ceiling of $30 million. That’s a chunk behind the 2018 original, which saw Jason Statham lead a group of scientists against two gigantic sharks. “The Meg” earned $45 million in its domestic opening and finished with $145 million in North America and $530 million worldwide.
As its predecessor did, “The Trench,” which sees Jason Statham lead a group of scientists against even more gigantic sharks, will look to international territories as its main course to replenish its $129 million production budget. Notably, the sequel adds Wu Jing to its cast — a colossal star in China who has anchored local mega-hits such as “The Battle at Lake Changjin,” “Wolf Warrior” and “The Wandering Earth.” In fact, Wu’s character perished in the first “Wandering Earth” entry, so its follow-up was conceived as a prequel so that the actor could return to star.
Not that the first “Meg” was an awards season heavyweight, but “The Trench” hasn’t performed well in reviews (a 33% from top critics on Rotten Tomatoes). Audiences also seem to be cooler on the sequel, turning in a “B” grade on Cinema Score, down from the “B+” earned by the first entry. Consensus opinion may be that the franchise has jumped the… well… but a spectacular reception would’ve marked a bit of a marketing misdirect, to put it frankly.
“Meg 2: The Trench” sees Statham and Wu team up with Sophia Cai, Page Kennedy, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Skyler Samuels, Cliff Curtis and Sienna Guillory to take down not one, not two, but three prehistoric sharks, along with a bunch of other sea creatures. Beguilingly, the feature is based on a novel, “The Trench” by Steve Alten, and helmed by “Kill List” and “High-Rise” director Ben Wheatley, making the jump to big-budget filmmaking.