"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Overtakes "300" at the Box Office

The fine warriors of the movie "300" were able to slay warriors from far away lands and conquer the box office for the last two weekends, but there was one foe they couldn't hold back. Though Spartan soldiers might be the fiercest thing this side of the ancient times, they were no match for a group of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who topped them at the box office this week.

"TMNT" is a new age animation of some old age heroes, similar to "300" in that regard. The Turtles, however, are making a living off of a loyal following of now twenty-somethings who remember the turtles from their childhood. Some were skeptical as to how this movie would be received by the overall public, but box office numbers indicate that the film was a great success. According to distributors at Warner Bros., the movie sold an estimated 25.4 million dollars worth of tickets in the opening weekend.

Early estimations for this 30 million dollar flick had placed the opening weekend numbers somewhere in the mid-teens, but the movie far outdid that. Many of the movie goers were youngsters, but even more of the crowd was made up of young adults who wanted to relive the heroes of their childhood. Warner Brothers indicated that their exit polls yielded favorable results.

This installment of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" comes sixteen years after the last and is fourth in the series. The newest edition has been by far the most successful, beating the third movie in the series which sold a little more than 12 million dollars worth of tickets back in 1991.

Though the turtles conquered "300" in the American box office, "300" remained the king overseas. The three weekend total for that Warner Bros. film is now a staggering $162.4 million dollars. Warner Bros. executives do not think it likely that the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" will overtake "300" at anytime in the international markets. "300" still managed to sell $48 million this past weekend in international tickets.

Those two movies have teamed up to create quite a cash flow for the powerful movie company. While 2006 might have been a down year for the former powerhouse, 2007 marks the first time since 2001 that Warner Brothers has held the top two movies at one time. In that year, Warner Brothers had "Oceans 11" and "Harry Potter's and the Sorcerer's Stone".