Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Sequel Tops Friday Box Office

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is expected to take home the weekend box office crown -- and it got off to a roaring start on that front yesterday.

The sequel to 2014's blockbuster comics adaptation earned $12.5 million yesterday -- the only movie to top $10 million on Friday at the domestic box office, and on pace for a $30 to $35 million weekend.

Last week's comics adaptation, X-Men: Apocalypse, tumbled to third place on Friday with a little over $6 million haul. Me Before You, a romance starring Game of Thrones's Emilia Clarke, came in second with over $7 million.

Going into the weekend, it was generally assumed that Apocalypse would come in second, but Me Before You has been outperforming expectations. It's entirely possible X-Men will still take second place for the weekend in its entirety, since it has a broader audience base than Me Before You and is expected to be less front-loaded. If it earns the $25 million or so it was originally projected to earn, X-Men: Apocalypse will see a decline that's roughly on par with most big blockbusters in their second week -- a little steeper than Captain America: Civil War, but not as steep as Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

For Ninja Turtles, it's hard to say how happy the studio will or won't be. Even winning its opening weekend by a wide margin, a $35 million opening would be a nearly 50% drop from the opening weekend for the first installment in the franchise -- this despite better word of mouth and an A- CinemaScore.