Did the movie do as well as expected?

[Galactus]

I would argue it seemed obvious once they halted production and slashed the budget that Paramount knew this wasn't going to be a great success. This was further compounded by the lack of promotion for months or news released like you would get with a movie of this type. So I doubt anyone at Paramount was shocked or surprised by it's mediocre level of financial success as I'm sure by that point they were very prepared for it.

I think a better question is what did Paramount originaly expect when the aquired the franchise?

Bare in mind it was suggested at the time Viacom buying TMNT was so they had a comic book franchise like Warner Bros does with the DC heroes and Disney with the Marvel heroes. It seemed a direct reaction to losing the Marvel movies themselves. I'm sure they were looking for TMNT to be comparable to the first Iron Man movie.

I also don't think it's outlandish to suggest that going with Platinum Dunes with big names associated with Transfomers - another 80s franchise with what's seen to be a similar appeal they believed it would lead to Transfomers level money.

So while I believe they can't be surprised or that upset with the results I think there's more than a few execs that probably looked back at their projections back in 2010 and wonder how it ended up like this.

Obviously their marketing team are promoting this as a success, I'd say even announcing a sequel a week after was a promotional move. I don't doubt that a sequel is being talked about but I'm sure they are looking very seriously at what to do to better these numbers. After all as I've put forth in another thread if this movie goes a bit over making it's budget back then with propensity for sequels to go "bigger" in scale as well as suggestions they want to include more characters like Casey Jones and motion captured Bebop and Rocksteady it will require a bigger budget which means that if the next movie lands in the same ballpark then the next movie is selling at a loss ...and that's supposing it makes around the same. Given that a fair amount of people walked out very disapointed I don't think it should be taken for granted they'll be back for a sequel.