LOS ANGELES — Turtle power isn’t all that strong the second time around, according to comScore estimates Sunday.
But not all is bleak at the box office.
While many of the season’s sequels continue to struggle, the healthy debut of the romantic drama “Me Before You” proved that there is room for more than superheroes in the summer.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” won the box office, but its estimated $35.3 million debut is not exactly cause for celebration. The $135 million production from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies comes just two years after the studios rebooted the property. The 2014 movie performed surprisingly well – opening to $65.6 million and going on to gross $493.3 million worldwide.
But those who did show up liked this film far better than the first, according to exit polls. “Out of the Shadows” doubles down on the fan elements with the introduction of a number of villains from the ’80s cartoon. But it was a bit too late for some who turned out for the first. The studio noticed a drop in attendance from the “nostalgia” audience of 25- to 34-year-olds this time around.
“You have to work a little bit harder to get people to a property if they didn’t feel that we hit the fan beats as hard on the last movie as this movie does,” said Megan Colligan, Paramount’s President of Worldwide Distribution and Marketing.
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2” is just the latest in a string of underwhelming openings for sequels this summer season, which runs from the first weekend in May through Labor Day.
Some of the lackluster showings include “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising,” “Alice Through the Looking Glass,” and even “X-Men: Apocalypse,” which fell a hefty 66 percent in its second weekend in theaters, earning $22.3 million for a second-place finish.
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