Box office: ‘Ninja Turtles’ stays on top as ‘Expendables 3’ flops on Friday

Teenage Power continued at the box office on Friday as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” topped Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the “Expendables” franchise showed signs of fatigue.

In its second Friday, the Michael Bay-produced “TMNT” earned $7.9 million for first place and will likely close the weekend with an impressive $26 million. So far, the film has earned $97.1 million domestically and should be crossing the $100 million mark by the time you finish reading this article. 

Marvel's “Guardians” meanwhile took second place, earning another $6.9 million, brining its total to a big $204.4 million. 

The weekend's rookies stumbled in the face of such strong holdover competition. Sylvester Stallone's “Expendables 3” suffered the worst opening day yet for the action series, running up a disappointing $5.8 million on Friday. It will likely earn just $15 million for the weekend.

The first “Expendables” bowed to $34.8 million in 2010, while “2” picked up $28.5 million in 2012. The addition of Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas and Mel Gibson to the cast doesn't seem to have had much of an impact on moviegoers.

The low-budget 20th Century Fox comedy “Let's Be Cops,” which opened on Wednesday, is doing OK, picking up $5.6 million on Friday. It has collected $14 million domestically since opening, and will easily surpass its $17 million production budget this weekend. 

“The Giver” — which features Brenton Thwaites, Katie Holmes and Oscar winners Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges — opened to a low $4.7 million on Friday, and should earn around $13 million for the weekend. 

Look for complete weekend estimates Sunday on HitFix. 

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