China - July 2nd.

[Commenter 42]

Yeah, we've talked it to death, and the consensus is that TMNT 2 is dead in the water, and nothing will save it....

Then this happened

Excerpt:

Originally Posted by WIRED.com

OVER THE WEEKEND, Legendary Pictures’ Warcraft opened in the United States with just over $24 million at the box office. For a summer blockbuster that cost an estimated $160 million to make, that’s a flop any way you look at it; in fact, it made less in its opening weekend than recent summer flops Battleship, The Lone Ranger, even Fantastic Four.

But in China, Warcraft isn’t just doing better than it did in the U.S.—it’s breaking records. In five days, the film raked in $156 million, beating out last year’s Furious 7 to become the country’s highest-grossing opening for a foreign-produced film. To put that in the context of last year’s undisputed global hit: in China, Warcraft made more in five days than Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens did in its entire theatrical run ($124 million).

So, with Viacom getting a portion of it's production money from China, and the well known firewall between them and us potentially keeping DL's on the DL...

Is the real measure of PDMT2:OOTS:MBITD still to come?

is July 2nd the real D day?

[Autbot_Benz]

I guess The Chinese really love bad American Movies

[Ramboraph4life aka Matt]

But on the other hand, I remember reading something about the fact that the 2014 TMNT made around $60 million total in China. So I wouldn't be surprised if this one made less, considering that a lot of (not all) sequels make less than the previous/first one.

[TrickOrTreater]

Originally Posted by Ramboraph4life aka Matt

But on the other hand, I remember reading something about the fact that the 2014 TMNT made around $60 million total in China. So I wouldn't be surprised if this one made less, considering that a lot of (not all) sequels make less than the previous/first one.

That'll be the test.

Hopefully it does and we can put this garbage on the street.

[Coola Yagami]

Assuming it flops in China, that will really be the final nail in the coffin. Also depends just how big the Turtles and the OT are in China. Maybe WOW was super huge in China? I'm honestly surprised WOW wasn't breaking all sorts of records here. The game has a large enough audience. Almost everyone I know has it, has played it, or has heard or it, and my theater erupted when the trailer for it came on.

[Commenter 42]

Hey, I have NO love for this garbage, BUT....

but...

but

China loved Warcraft. Loved.

[Bry]

Keep in mind, World of Warcraft is massively popular in China. I believe I read somewhere that half of WoW's worldwide players are from China. So that could explain the huge appeal in that particular market.

[Commenter 42]

My fear, is it will push TMNT2 into the black.

[CyberCubed]

I wonder if China hates TMNT because the whole origin is dealing with Japanese characters and backstory. Splinter and Shredder are Japanese, most of the Foot are Japanese, the Turtles are brought up in ninjitsu.

Doesn't China hate Japan? They are mortal enemies.

[Ramboraph4life aka Matt]

But again, here is the thing. Right now, the film has made around $120 million worldwide.

I just don't see how/why TMNT 2 would get so much more of a massive 'box office haul' in China compared to the first one (which again, was about $60 million).

So, say it made the same in China as the 2014 one.

That's $180 million. Add another $20 to $30 million more (finishing off its' US run as well as some change worldwide).

So around $210 million worldwide. Let's add in a bit more "Just Because".

$240 million worldwide from a $135 million budget (plus advertising was what...maybe/at least $50 million to $60 million? Again, this thing had a Super Bowl ad, which run around $3 million to $4 million apiece).

So $185 million budget compared to a $240 million worldwide.

That's about how much money the remake of Robocop made (around $240 million worldwide) and it had a lower budget (around $100 million production budget compared to this one's $135 million production budget). No sequel, just nothing else for its' future.

The thinking would be 'well, with each sequel, it seems it'll make less and less back. Let's just stop'. It happens all the time.

Just look at The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (it made over $700 million worldwide, but the big budget and the 'not meeting Expectations' didn't help it). No third film.

Thus Spidey in Civil War and the upcoming Homecoming.

[Commenter 42]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I wonder if China hates TMNT because the whole origin is dealing with Japanese characters and backstory. Splinter and Shredder are Japanese, most of the Foot are Japanese, the Turtles are brought up in ninjitsu.

Doesn't China hate Japan? They are mortal enemies.

True. But that's not a part of PDMT, is it?

I thought the movie version was just Shredder was ugly, so he adopted a white kid to work in a laboratory in New York, because he had these scrolls that talked about ancient turtle monsters, so they thought it was a good idea to do drug experiments on reptiles, because they are a poor substitute for mammals.

Then, 15 years later, after committing arson, White Shredder and Ugly Shredder went to see TASM2 in theaters and thought it wasn't very good, but they decide to re-enact the last part of the movie in New York, but for reals.
Then Ugly shredder remembers how much he hates this rat man he's never met before, and goes to kill him, which makes 4 green roid monkeys mad, so they fight back, only they suck, so they lose.

Ugly Shredder drops the kids off to White Shredder, who sucks their blood for a bit, and this really makes them sleepy, but also angry...

and the BLOOD FEUD IS BORN.

Right?

The only Japanese component left in PDMT is Brian Tee, and he's only half; his mom is Korean.

[Powder]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-J...iment_in_China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-C...iment_in_Japan

[d_osborn]

Yeah, with the 2014 movie only getting around the $60mil in China as mentioned earlier, I don't see the sequel being much larger of a draw.

The movie franchise potential was a huge part of why Viacom/Nick bought TMNT. For the movie to not even be in the black in the domestic release, that HAS to be seen as a failure on the corporate level.

Outside of the movies, is the TMNT brand a pretty big draw these days? I haven't really been keeping up with it much. If the brand is doing good numbers elsewhere, I could see Viacom trying to reboot it. If Guardians of the Galaxy can bring in big money, TMNT definitely has the potential. Collector products seem to be popping up everyday, so the market is apparently there.

[Shark_Blade]

Originally Posted by Powder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-J...iment_in_China

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-C...iment_in_Japan

I like to believe there are still good in people, even if there are few. For example:

According to a 2014 BBC World Service Poll, Chinese people alike hold the largest anti-Japanese sentiment in the world, with 90% of Chinese people viewing Japan's influence negatively, and only 5% expressing a positive view.

Japan actually borrowed stuff from China like their locographic chinese characters for writing and to make up their own hiragana and katakana. Dispute is just petty, imagine the stuff they could do together.

[Candy Kappa]

WoW is still pretty big in China it seems, and they have a bootleg theme park there. So maybe Warcraft and TMNT2 isn't quite comparable.

[Commenter 42]

Isn't WoW a worldwide thing? Thought it was huge here.

The first didn't make big dollars, but the first didn't have Chinese money...

TF 1-3 didn't do well in China, but TF4 did...

Hope it's nothing, just me feeling the weather in my bones....

[Candy Kappa]

WoW don't have 12M subscribers anymore, I think they are almost down to half of what they had at their most.

[Commenter 42]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

WoW don't have 12M subscribers anymore, I think they are almost down to half of what they had at their most.

So it's not cool anymore? I'm not a gamer at all. What is?
They bought the rights in 2006...guess they moved a little too slowly.

Still, China has 1.3 billion....

[NinjaPug]

I mentioned this in another thread but studios receive a fraction of the Chinese box office due to tariffs. The only reason Warcraft is an exception is because Legendary is owned by a Chinese corporation. TMNT 2 struck some sort of distribution deal with a Chinese group so they'll probably see more of a return than another domestic produced films but nothing like Warcraft's return.

TMNT also isn't popular in China like Warcraft.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

Did anyone watch 'Need for Speed' in 2014? Well, the Chinese did, so much so that a sequel is being made just for China. If the Chinese love terrible American movies, just think of how awful Chinese movies must be.