“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,” Michelangelo once uttered. “Man, I love being a turtle.” And with good cause, as it turns out. The reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from director Jonathan Liebesman and producer Michael Bay overpowered the box office this weekend with a better-than-expected $65 million domestic gross, and an estimated $93.7 million combined international take. That’s the fourth highest opening weekend in August history, behind only Guardians of the Galaxy, The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 2. (Don’t weep for Guardians of the Galaxy, however; the Marvel Studios film had the highest second weekend gross of the summer with an impressive $41.5 million.)
Related: 9 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Characters We Want in the Sequel
With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles nearly making its estimated $125 million budget back in just three days, it should come as no surprise that Paramount has already green lit a sequel. They’re not waiting, either. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 is due in theaters less than two years from the release of the current film, on June 3, 2016. That weekend has already been claimed by the animated Seth Rogen comedy Sausage Party (in which Rogen plays a sausage). The sequel will also face stiff competition from X-Men: Apocalypse and Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass, which are scheduled to open just one weekend prior.
It is unknown as to whether director Jonathan Liebesman will return for the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in its current mutation, but screenwriters Josh Applebaum, Evan Daugherty and Andre Nemec all said that the fan favorite characters Bebop and Rocksteady, a mutant warthog and rhinoceros (respectively), are ready to show up in the sequel after being written out of the current film.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
