‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ opens big at box office, sequel confirmed

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may only have opened at theaters, but Paramount is now confirming a sequel for TMNT.

According to Deadline on Sunday, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 will open in 2016 as Paramount President Adam Goodman releasing an official statement regarding the future of the franchise.

“Launching a new take on the Turtles into the feature film world was a daunting task because as fans of them ourselves, we felt a great responsibility to ensure audiences were going to experience everything they loved about the Turtles, while also getting to see them brought to life in a way they had never been seen before.”

“The result exceeded our high expectations and the response to the film is beyond great, making it all the more fun to get started on the continuation of their story.”

The TMNT reboot opened #1 at the box office with $65 million and will open overseas over the next few months. The turtles took over top spot from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy which was second at $41.5 million, pushing the film’s US total over $175 million.

Into the Storm opened at $18, The Hundred-Foot Journey was next at $11 and Lucy rounded out the top five with $9.3 million.

Paramount’s marketing for TMNT worked by specifically targeting  to what it called “nostalgics,” people in their late 20s and early 30s who grew up with the characters in films, comic books and a television series, said Megan Colligan, president of domestic marketing and distribution. It isn’t a group that wants to see its childhood characters toyed with, said Ms. Colligan, so the marketing emphasized known traits like the turtles’ love of pizza and penchant for exclaiming “Cowabunga!” About 55% of the opening-weekend audience was older than 25.

TMNT stars Megan Fox, William Fichtner, Will Arnett, Alan Ritchson, Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard, Danny Woodburn, Mos Def, Noel Fisher, Johnny Knoxville and Tony Shalhoub.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 is currently set for June 2, 2016.