10 Terrible Movies That Still Smashed The Box Office
6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem proved in 2023 that it is possible to make a great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, but they did not get that memo in 2014. Jonathan Liebesman's first foray into the franchise missed on just about every level possible.
Following in the wake of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, comic book movies began to take note and adopt a darker, grittier tone. This didn't work for Superman in Man of Steel, and it didn't work for the heroes in a half-shell.
There is a scene within the first ten minutes of the 2013 picture that is almost identical to when Christian Bale's Batman attacks Salvatore Maroni's (Eric Roberts) men from the shadows, which worked great for the Dark Knight, but that just isn't the Ninja Turtles. Dark, gritty, and grounded didn't work for Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo, and yet the movie still made enough money to greenlight an equally bad sequel, Out of the Shadows.
On a budget of just $125 million, the film reached almost half a billion dollars, likely based on the name alone. TMNT is an instantly recognisable and beloved franchise that people almost instinctively flocked to see. However, once the sequel was released and audiences knew what to expect, it's no surprise that Out of the Shadows brought in less than half of what the original managed.