Don’t Expect a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, Says Producer
 

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” under-performed at the box office, earning $245 million worldwide — half the gross of its 2014 predecessor — and catching its producers by surprise.

“We loved the movie. We loved making the movie,” producer Andrew Form told Collider. “From our first Super Bowl teaser to everything we launched, we felt so good about our material, and for some reason it did not find the audience that the first movie found.”

RELATED: “TMNT: Out of the Shadows” Honest Trailer Gets Right to the Point

When it came to what went wrong, Form offered, “We talk about it all the time, and we tried to figure it out, but we cannot put our finger on what happened. We really can’t. It’s just one of those things where we feel like we made a really great movie; we thought at the time that our release date was great, and we added all these new characters with Bebop and Rocksteady and Baxter Stockwell had a big role in the movie and Casey Jones and for some reason when it came to opening weekend … Even before the movie came out, we were feeling great. And you wake up two days before the movie opens and you go, ‘Wow, I don’t know if this movie is tracking as well as it should.'”

Ultimately, the low box-office numbers likely spell doom for another sequel. “I don’t think there’s ‘Turtles 3,'” Form said, “but I wouldn’t say there’s never going to be another ‘Turtles’ movie.”

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD.

http://www.cbr.com/dont-expect-a-tee...B-P&view=lista

So they'll make a different universe movie?

New characters from the old show ≠ Good movie.

Good storytelling/writing/characters/smart humor/action = Good movie.

The films were okay IMO. Standard superhero fare which took elements from the TMNT story, and was reasonably faithful and enjoyable.


The problem is they couldn't get together a good origin for the mutated animals, which really spoiled things.

The first film took from Rise of the Planet of the Apes (animals used as lab subjects for a new medication, that grants them intelligence and humanoid capability) and The Amazing Spider-Man (lizard-like humanoids, fight on a tower), and also from the IDW TMNT comics (Turtles and Splinter raised in a lab, the reincarnations of Hamato Yoshi and his four dead sons). But they removed Hamato Yoshi, so it didn't feel right.


The second film did a little better IMO with introducing Bebop and Rocksteady and Krang, and slightly embracing its cartoonish cowabunga crazy nature. And then they used a different mutagen origin: inside every human there's a dormant animal gene from an animal ancestor, and the Mutagen Ooze allows that gene to dominate the human and turn into its respective ancestor. Thus, Bebop and Rocksteady evolved from warthogs and rhinos and the Turtles could evolve into humans if the mutagen was altered. That logic makes no damn sense, even for 1980s Ninja Turtles which was over-the-top.


Also, the Shredder was underused in both films. In the first film he was the stepfather some white businessman who wanted to use the mutagen to kill people and then make a cure to sell to people, becoming stupid rich (his own words). Actually, the white dude was supposed to be the Shredder but people complained so they brought in a Japanese actor.
The second film kept him Japanese, but had him be Krang's errand boy and later slave, and didn't even give him good armor or a fight with the Turtles IMO.


I have to admit, I don't know where the third film could have gone. Would it be Turtles in time (again), or Turtles in space?


Anyway that's it for Michael Bay's TMNT.

Good. Rip the rights out of Platinum Dunes' hands, wait a few years, and try again with actual writers. ACTUAL. WRITERS. Who respect the source material in ALL of its forms.

Thank God this nightmare is over.

Are these idiots seriously that oblivious or are they just trying to cover their trail of destruction by shrugging their shoulders?

Wait, so despite the high levels of criticism, and even hate, after the first, the fact that audiences didn't pour in for the second caught them by surprise? Exactly how long have these people been in that business..? Have they not been down the sequel road before?? You'd think they'd have a better sense of predicting of how a sequel may turn out if audience reviews for the first weren't great. Way to be solely focused on the money.

Being (or acting) so clueless doesn't look good on anyone handling big films. Rather, you collectively look like a complete crock that needs to call it quits in that industry.


You made some poor choices and f'ed up the first, which negatively impacted interest in the second. Why is that so hard to grasp, take off the cloak of denial you're hiding in...

You can't just shake a sparkly Technodrome at fans and expect people to come running if they didn't like how the first turned out. People aren't dogs, we're not going to just up and forgive everything because you tossed a shiny new ball our way.


A really slow time of the year with not much else good to see might have been a better choice...


You owe the Turtles an apology. Maybe not necessarily even to viewers, as people aren't required to like everything (though maybe to those who want their money back), but the Turtles deserved better treatment from the get-go. No matter what version and design they are.





The part of me that wants these idiots away from the Turtles is fine with it. The part of me that at least felt the 2nd was better in some important ways via changes I was really hoping would happen for almost 2 years, and had continued to want to see it correct this black mark in the franchise and improve itself over time and kinda wanted to know where it would go from here for these Turtles... that part is a little sad and irked at them for screwing up in the first place.

I feel bad for the director though. He's still new and surely trying to get films that turned out well under his name is still important to him. They kind of screwed him by not getting better writers to handle the script.

Also the Turtles' actors, I wouldn't mind them portraying our boys still for a while.

It's most likely the latter.

Either way, glad this particular movie franchise is dead.

The 1987 TV series and its characters are not to blame for the box-office performance of this film. People just really don't want to see Michael Bay films anymore. Transformers: Age of Extinction did not bring in as big of numbers as its predecessors. It's North American box-office total might not even be that accurate since Rentrak stated that its opening weekend numbers were not what the receipts stated. People also just really don't want to see films with bad reviews anymore. Suicide Squad was the rare exception this year while Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice barely turned a profit.

These people really are clueless

Micheal Bay called your check is in the mail

also glad this franchise is gone Casey was ruined

What the hell are you talking about? The damn thing made over a billion dollars. People (in general) still go and watch the Transformers movies, there was no drop in attendance. Michael Bay himself is not to blame for this.

The problem with Out of the Shadows is that it's a sequel to an unpopular movie that barely broke even, very few people want to see a sequel to movie they either didn't watch or didn't like, and it really doesn't help that Out of the Shadows isn't a good movie either.

And while the FW elements might not be to blame, they certainly didn't help.

Age of Extinction utterly destroyed the box office. Granted, not as much as past Transformers movies, but Age of Extinction shattered the box office.

And I only make that statement because according to the quote, these people expected the film to turn in great profits because, in their own words, "we added all these new characters with Bebop and Rocksteady and Baxter Stockwell had a big role in the movie and Casey Jones."

That does not mean good movie. How you represent those characters means good movie. You'd think they'd get that, but apparently not.

Hopefully the franchise get a fresh start and TMNT can be seen in a new, more respectful light in an upcoming movie. As long as PD isn't involved and/or they actually get good writers/director.

It's nice to get confirmation, good riddance.

I should've been more specific. I meant that it didn't reach the same heights as its predecessors at the North American box-office. The first and third made over $300 million while the second made over $400 million. The last one made $241 million, which I thought was seen as a sign of fatigue for those films. Still, that is a very respectable total.

As said elsewhere...

What went wrong was all the mistakes with the first one, which soured people on seeing the second. Get some talented people on the next one, who care about the series in all of it's incarnations, and make a film everyone can enjoy. No alien turtle talk, no horrible designs, no poorly constructed plot. Put some time and care into making a good film, and get Kevin Eastman and Tom waltz to do the script. (or at least the story)

And as to the argument that OT elements being what made this film suck, I don't buy it. IDW took the OT straw and spun it into gold, while Platinum Dunes took the OT straw and spun it into manure. Personally, I'd to see a baxter vs rat king film with the tmnt caught in the middle, or adapt the noi-da-tar arc with chien Kahn and Ninjara from Archie.everybody has to admit those would be better than the two bay film's.

Holy moley are you right. This one's going into the sig.

In other words the sky is blue. though to be fair I was surprised the first one had a sequel

Cool, just remember to quote me on that one! :)

Also, I can't see TMNT staying dormant for long. If superhero movies stay strong, I think we'll see a new take in just a few short years.

Definitely no later than 3-4 years. I imagine there's already talk of how to approach it being had behind closed doors.

I'm surprised people expect another reboot so soon.

The gap between TMNT III and TMNT 2007 was 14 years. The gap between TMNT 2007 and TMNT 2014 was 7 years.

We could be waiting a long time.

Oh man! I just picked up my NECA Foot Clan set and I thought today could get no better for me TMNT-wise. :tlol:

I mean, condolences to those who enjoyed this series, but I think it's pretty obvious they botched this from jump street. Though BayFormers keeps chugging along with idiotic garbage, I'm glad the audience rejected this one, and hopefully they find filmmakers/producers who understand how to make a good Turtles movie with the next attempt.

This says it all:

These guys never understood the property. Never ever. They never even tried. Nothing about their take felt really "right" -- at best it was just really shallow, cynical lip service to what they assumed the fans wanted, that didn't capture the characters, the tone, or the spirit of what those fans actually love. These producers are little more than brand monetizers -- they thought "put Bebop and Rocksteady in it" was a surefire recipe for success, and that was the beginning and the end of their thought process. They didn't care one bit. It was an empty cash-grab with no heart, and it deserved to fail. With luck, Form and Fuller will be kept far, far away from whatever comes next.

While there is an argument to made that the 2014 movie soured people on the sequel it should not be the go-to explanation/excuse for why Out of the Shadows failed so spectacularly.

Out of the Shadows had a big marketing campaign that successfully conveyed a sense that they were taking a different approach from the previous movie, one that played up all the aspects it was largely believed fans wanted and people largely turned their noses up at it. The question we should be asking is why were so many more people willing to give a "wrong" version of TMNT a shot and not one that was looked like it was doing a lot "right"?

Personally I found no problem getting friends to go see the 2014 movie with me. They cared less about the controversies and changes to the canon, they were open to see it because it looked like in many ways they were giving the property the same kind of treatment a lot of modern comic book movies are given (the end result wasn't really like that but that's what it kinda looked like) whereas trying to find friends to go with me to see the sequel was met with apathy or variations of "I don't know...looks kinda dumb".

TMNT may be a well known property but it's not at a level where it can solely rely on fans. People that were not really fans and may have been put off by the first where not going to be swayed back by overcrowding it up with 80s series characters and concepts, they were not going to get bums on seats by making it seem so dumb they might be embarrassed to see it without accompanying a child.

Another big problem I have with blaming the 2014 movie for the sequels failure is that should there be a reboot down the line it may it breeds the idea that Out of the Shadows unfairly flopped because of it rather than it being a sub par movie itself (in many ways it was worse than it's predecessor) and the lesson someone studio executives will learn is to go for something like Out of the Shadows straight away. That should not happen.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of whether the movies should be Mirage or Fred Wolf inspired we cannot load it with so many characters and concepts and expect people to come just because. It may be an overused example but look at the Marvel movies, they were working to a goal but took it one movie at a time. TMNT cannot afford to skip the origin or cut straight to "fan favourites". It needs to establish itself with good stories and characters before it even vaguely considers putting in off kilter concepts.

I have to imagine/hope they'll go a very different direction for the next attempt. I'm not holding out hope for a Mirage movie, mind you... but Daredevil on Netflix is a massive current hit, and they've got a property that was literally built on parodying the Daredevil comics that are at the heart of that series. It's a better idea than anything else they've tried.

You know what? If people want that origin film so badly, follow the lead of the 2k3 series. Adapt mirage issue 2+3 with Baxter and the mousers, intro April as Baxter's assistant, have Splinter tell her the origin in flashback like in 2k3 and the 1990 film (preferably with Yoshi reincarnation splinter instead of pet rat splinter) throw in a small part with the rat king (the destruction of his subjects by the mousers will draw him in) and tease Shredder at the end of the film. Then do a big, bloody 'return to new York' film as a sequel with april already in place, and introducing Casey the way he was meant to be. Then finish the trilogy off with 'city at war'.

That would at least give us a fresh spin on things, a little. :/

Shame, I would've loved a batshit insane third movie full of OT mutants since this is the only live action interpretation that could've let it happen. While both movies are flaws from their changes to the mythos and some design choices overall they aren't that bad and have plenty of elements that I liked.

What this means though is no more movies for who knows how long, less incentive for Nick to keep the CG show going and all the dominos keep falling for things to be just like when 4K!ds show ended and stay like that for a decade or more. By the time Wave 4 of TMNT movies/show comes around I'll likely have a kid who is old enough to watch:o.

Gee, some inexplicable reason, huh?

These guys are truly, truly lost. Hacks. Misguided hacks.

No, that was the white businessman not Shredder who wanted to become stupid rich.

I don't know if everyone saw the video that was linked but they were being interviewed about Ouija and were asked about TMNT. In the clip they seem a little caught off guard? It wasn't the whole thing (and he actually said Stockman don't know why the article says Stockwell)

Obviously they know why some people don't like it or didn't go see it. They're not going to say "we know people hate the designs etc..."

Plus it has to be a little surprising when your first movie does significantly better. I still have not seen Oots. I'm not purposely avoiding it. Just have not seen it yet.

I'm grateful regardless, it's been a blast and a privilege! :tlove:

TMNT1
TMNT 2014
TMNT OOTS
TMNT Turtles Forever
TMNT 2007
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"Baxter Stockwell" :tlol:

Kinda says it all right there, doesn't it?

"B-b-b-b-but we did the Beebop and the Rocksteady and th-th-th-the Baxter Stockwell and Krung and nobody c-c-came and it just doesn't m-m-make sense."

Haha. Pretty much.

That perfectly communicated a marketing guy curled up in the fetal position under his desk in a puddle of his own bodily fluids, sobbing pitiably.

Except there is no pity.

Kudos.

It was the goddamn nostrils and the big Hulk-like look for the Turtles that doomed these movies from the start.

I don't even think they bothered to TRY to understand it in the first place. if so, they never would have even THOUGHT to make the Turtles Aliens. as soon as that leaked out, i knew it was doomed from the start.

Even when you have supposed fans working on the property, there's no garuntee it'll turn out right.

Look at the new series. it's pretty clear the people in charge want to focus on Mirage and Horror, with goofy monster designs each week like Super Shredder. Yet, Playmates and maybe nick want it more like the 80s series,throwing in everything at random and not taking time to make sure it's either developed, or fits.


I think what needs to happen is two fold. you need to groom a new peter laird and kevin eastman. someone to look after the property and handle all aspects of it. you need to reduce playmates control of the property. they only care about selling toys. they've got no real creative story input to offer. Nick should be pushing them around not the other way.

You need a creative control director. someone who knows the pulse of what's good for the property, and good for it to evolve.

And you just need a game plan. So far, IDW is the only one who devlops older properties. And i'm just amazed at how much they put out that I have ZERO complaints on. they've got their crap together. Paramount and Nick do not.

You just sent people who like to defend movies like this to their safe space.

:D