‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of the Shadows’ battles to win soft weekend box office

While “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” looks to be leading the weekend box office from Friday returns, the sequel to the 2014 hit also seems to be following in the footsteps of other recent films that have lagged behind their predecessors.

The movie brought in an estimated $12.5 million Friday, pointing toward a projected weekend total of more than $33 million. Produced again by Michael Bay and starring Megan Fox alongside the pizza-eating, crime-fighting creatures of the title, the new film lagged behind the more than $65-million opening of the first “Ninja Turtles” movie in August 2014.

Looking at second place for the weekend will be “X-Men: Apocalypse,” with a Friday estimate of $6.6 million on its way to a weekend projection just above $22 million. It opened last weekend to $80 million, a disappointment for the now long-running franchise that was 27% lower than the debut of the previous installment, 2014’s “X-Men: Days of Future Past.”

The romantic weepie “Me Before You,” with “Game of Thrones” star Emilia Clarke, brought in more than $7.7 million Friday on its way a projected weekend total just over $18 million. The film is an adaptation of the popular novel by Jojo Moyes.

The Johnny Depp-starring “Alice Through the Looking Glass” brought in a little over $3 million Friday on its way to a projected weekend of $11 million. The film was considered a huge disappointment last weekend when it opened to $26.8 million.

The weekend’s other new wide release, the culture satire of “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” from the comedy team of Lonely Island, showed that it’s not just sequels that are struggling at the box office. The movie, which stars Andy Samberg as a Justin-Bieber-like pop singer, came in with an estimated $1.8 million Friday on its way to a projected weekend total just over $4.5 million.

“The Angry Birds Movie” is projected to bring in $9.7 million in its third weekend, bringing its total to more than $86.5 million. “Captain America: Civil War” looks to add $7 million for the weekend to bring its total to more than $388 million. “Civil War” is the year’s top box office performer to date.

MOVIE REVIEWS:

‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ overshadowed by noise and sludge

‘Me Before You’ puts emoting before acting

Andy Samberg is perfectly dim in the pop pastiche ‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’

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