Can the TMNT brand survive a "bad" Turtles movie?
 

As we all know, bad movies can potentially damage a brand to the point where it bombs the franchise for a few years until it reboots. Common examples are:

- Batman and Robin damn near killed the entire Batman movie franchise for years. Its not only considered the worst comic book movie of all time (that's well known anyway), but it completely soured Batman, Robin, Mr. Freeze, and Bane especially in the eyes of the general public

- Superman IV bombed the Superman franchise in theaters for nearly 20 years. Even Superman Returns was poorly received, which kept the franchise out of theaters for another couple of years until Man of Steel.

- The Green Lantern movie bombed, completely killed the franchises chances of taking off in the mainstream

- Spiderman 3 ruined the original Spiderman trilogy, eventually leading to the films to be rebooted.

- X-men the Third stand almost ruined the X-men movie franchise entirely, but its now going through a second wind.

etc.


While the Turtles franchises has had some less than stellar movies before, they either came at already the waning days of the franchise (TMNT III), or nobody was even aware the movie existed outside of hardcore fans in the first place (TMNT 4 in 2007).


However thanks to Nick the TMNT franchise is probably at the most popular its ever been since around 1992, and this new movie is already well known to the masses thanks to the controversy of the following:

1. Rumors of alien Turtles
2. Michael Bay
3. Megan Fox
4. White Eric Sachs Shredder
5. The leaked script which was horrible


Do you think if this movie bombs with terrible reviews in theaters, that it could potentially damage the TMNT brand? What possible impact could it have on the rest of the franchise?

I think there'll be small damage but nothing too large. The Nick toon, IDW comics and toys will continue while the movie (if unsuccessful) will flounder and just be another Michael Bay flick.

Yes the brand will survive, heck. A bad movie can still reel in the big dough, case in point the live action Transformers movies.

The TMNT brand has survived many bad Turtles movies. They'll be alright.

Now, their credibility after this movie? Not so much, but 63 million can buy a lot of things... even that.

If Spider-Man 3 is considered a 'bad' movie that killed the brand according to you, then I think we'll be just fine in terms of Turtles....

Survived the wind down of Turtle mania with Turtle Tunes, Turtle Christmas, and Next Mutation. I think we can deal.

I think we'll be fine.

I think it depends on what we are defining as "bad", and what degree of survival we are talking about.

If it's a box office success, but a critical failure, the mainstream would still regard the franchise as geared for children/pre-teens and it would be more difficult to convince the adult mainstream that the premise can be enjoyed at a more mature level (if we considering they are not comic book readers or don't have a nostalgic tie to the franchise from their childhood), and as Andrew NDB seems to suggest in terms of credibility. The possibilities of reaching "Turtlemania" success would be postponed at best.

If it's both a critical and a financial failure, it would be a big step back if Nickelodeon/Viacom was hoping for this movie to initiate a period of "Turtlemania" enthusiasm.

As for some using TMNT III, Turtle Tunes, Turtle Christmas, and The Next Mutation as examples of the franchise "surviving", clearly TMNT survived within the underground/hardcore fandom community, but I don't think those films/shows can be used as proper examples for surviving the mainstream because all of those were released after Turtlemania (the years after 1989-1992). They were released when the franchise was declining, and they were riding the final waves of momentum created by the OT and first two movies to extract any profitability left... even if it was at the expense of quality. If the 1990 movie was horrendous, it would be a more appropriate example because it and the 2014 movie are both released when the franchise was rising in popularity.

Is it sad I just noticed that those are essentially all Leo just photoshopped to look like his brothers? Except maybe Donnie.

What fans think is bad and the general public think is bad is totally different though. We are on Transformers 4 and I couldn't even make it through the first one, but those movies are hugely popular. I think a "bad" turtles movie might be just what the people want. I know people who think the vehicle looks awesome for instance.

In conclusion, a bad movie might make big $ and that will mean plenty of more bad movies to come. Then they can ruin Casey Jones!

I think people are overreacting to everything and this topic sounds more like wishful-thinking that it bombs for those reasons listed.

Sadly TMNT is too popular for a movie bombing to go unnoticed.

The 2007 movie got away with being a "Meh" movie because nobody seemed to know it existed outside of the Ninja Turtle fandom. It couldn't do any damage because the mainstream had no clue about it.

I can't think of a long-running comic franchise that hasn't had at least one truly awful movie connected to it. The Turtles already have several. We'll be fine.

People keep saying "several" bad Turtle movies. There are only "several" Turtle movies to begin with. Which are the bad ones? Turtles 3 and TMNT? That's 2.

II and III. Arguably more.

So II, III and TMNT? That's only a few.

And please note, I'm not singling you out, even the OP's poll has "several" in it.

TMNT is a pretty good movie actually...

This questionable film can not destroy 3 decades of Ninja Turtles ... or we just do not know what there is to come? :ohwell:

The brand survived : The Third movie, The Coming Out of Their Shells Tour, The Christmas Special, & The Next Mutation. I don't think the movie can do as much damage as those other versions.