Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Box Office Pulls in $3.8 Million in Preview Screenings

Give it up for the heroes in green. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem took a slice out of the box office with $3.85 million in previews on Tuesday (August 1st) for a projected 5-day $30 million – $40 million opening. While that preview number is lower than the 2014 live-action reboot — which saw moviegoers shell out $4.6 million from Thursday night showings — it tops the $2 million pulled in by 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. At 95% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the animated Mutant Mayhem's franchise-best Rotten Tomatoes score is on par with the acclaimed Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, also at 95%. 

TMNT opens as box office behemoth Barbie eyes a third weekend of $55 million – $60 million, which would give Greta Gerwig's live-action adaptation of the beloved Mattel doll the #1 spot at the box office for three consecutive weeks. Disney's Haunted Mansion was dead on arrival with $24 million and will come in below the heroes in a half-shell for its second weekend; Mutant Mayhem will also best the Jason Statham-starring monster movie Meg 2: The Trench, which opens Friday and is projected to sink its teeth into numbers in the mid $20 million range.

Seth Rogen (The Boys, Invincible) serves as producer and co-writer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, from director Jeff Rowe (Gravity Falls, The Mitchells vs. the Machines). The official logline: "After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O'Neil helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them."

Starring as the titular turtle brothers are Nicolas Cantu (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) as Leo, Brady Noon (The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers) as Ralph, Micah Abbey (Cousins for Life) as Donny, and Shamon Brown Jr. (The Chi) as Mikey. Jackie Chan (Rush Hour) voices the turtles' rat sensei, master Splinter, and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) plays the turtles' human friend, April O'Neil. Rounding out the cast are Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) as Cynthia Utom and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) as Baxter Stockman.

Ice Cube (Ride Along) voices SuperFly, the ooze-mutated leader of an army of mutants that includes Rogen (The Super Mario Bros. Movie) as Bebop, John Cena (Fast X) as Rocksteady, Hannibal Buress (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne (Insidious: The Red Door) as Leatherhead, Natasha Demetriou (What We Do in the Shadows) as Wingnut, Post Malone (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as Ray Fillet, and Paul Rudd (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) as Mondo Gecko.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now playing exclusively in movie theaters.