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It’s Barbie’s world, and mutant turtles and prehistoric shark-beasts are just living in it.
That’s the likely story as new movies Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (NASDAQ:PARA) (PARAA) and Meg 2: The Trench (NASDAQ:WBD) step up against the runaway story of the summer, the top-grossing Barbie (WBD).
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie — latest entry in a comics franchise dating to the 1980s — opened on Wednesday after pulling $3.85M in a Tuesday preview, and it’s gathered about $15M heading into the weekend. That puts it on track for some $35M-plus over a five-day opening period.
That likely won’t be enough to slow down Barbie (WBD), which is looking at another $45M-plus. The film based on the Mattel (MAT) doll just crossed $400M domestically (in not quite three weekends in release) and has grossed at least $835M on a worldwide basis.
Meanwhile, Meg 2: The Trench (WBD) follows up its shark-action predecessor and drew about $3.2M in Thursday previews, meaning it’s targeting $25M-$30M in its opening weekend.
And don’t forget “Barbenheimer” counterpart Oppenheimer (NASDAQ:CMCSA), which will be fighting to hold on to second place but with a likely third-weekend result in the $25M range. The atomic-bomb biopic has already outperformed expectations with more than $194 domestically and a worldwide take of more than $425
Barbie is clearly the summer’s top movie, but it moved into second place for 2023 in domestic grosses, behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie (CMCSA) with just over $574M.
On a worldwide basis, Barbie has moved into the No. 3 spot for 2023 — just a hair behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (DIS), with $845.3M, and the Mario movie.
Cinema tickers: AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC); Cineworld (OTCPK:CNNWQ); Cinemark (CNK); (IMAX); Marcus (MCS); Reading International (RDI); Cineplex (CGX:CA); National CineMedia (NCMI).
