It was the battle of the superheroes at the box office Friday night, as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” topped Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
The Michael Bay-produced “TMNT” is performing even better than expected, picking up $25.6 million on Friday night, which will likely snowball into somewhere in the $65 million range by Monday.
The Paramount/Nickelodeon film will easily surpass the lifetime gross of the 2007 CG version, which stalled out at just $54 million domestically.
Meanwhile, “Guardians” — which set the record for August openings last weekend — earned another $12.3 million in its second Friday, bringing its domestic haul to a strong $146.7 million. It will likely earn $45 million or so for the weekend, and will soon be closing in on the $200 million mark.
In addition to “Ninja Turtles,” it's a big weekend for new movies, with “Into the Storm,” “The Hundred Foot Journey” and “Step Up All In” all opening wide.
“Storm” blew into third place on Friday, stirring up $6.5 million, on its way to what looks like a decent debut weekend haul of $18 million.
“Journey,” starring Dame Helen Mirren and produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, cooked up $3.6 million on Friday and is projected earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million for the weekend.
Meanwhile, the “Step Up” franchise is experiencing its lowest opening numbers yet with the disappointing “All In.” The fifth film in the series stumbled on the dance floor on Friday, earning just $2.8 million, essentially tying with holdover “Lucy.” The latter film, starring Scarlett Johansson, has so far earned a huge $90.8 million.
2006's original “Step Up” opened to an impressive $20.6 million, but each subsequent film has earned less and less. “All In” will be lucky to clear $7 million in its debut weekend. However, the “Step Up” films have traditionally done well internationally, so there could still be hope for the latest entry.
Look for complete weekend estimates Sunday on HitFix.