Looks like Paramount has all but shelved its live-action TMNT franchise for the foreseeable future, after Out of the Shadows producer Andrew Form conceded to Collider that it’s unlikely a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 will ever materialize.
Much of that comes down to Out of the Shadow‘s poor box office returns, pulling in only $245 million worldwide. That’s a marked dip from the 2014 original, which managed to reach within touching distance of half a billion. And so, TMNT looks set to tumble onto the back-burner at Paramount – Transformers and other Hasbro movies will likely take precedent – but Form did at least hint that there could be another Turtles movie further down the line.
Per Collider:
I don’t think there’s Turtles 3, but I wouldn’t say there’s never going to be another Turtles movie. We were obviously surprised at the box office results. We loved the movie. We loved making the movie. From our first Super Bowl teaser to everything we launched, we felt so good about our material, and for some reason it did not find the audience that the first movie found. And we talk about it all the time, and we tried to figure it out, but we cannot put our finger on what happened. We really can’t…We’re still so proud of the movie; it just didn’t find an audience. We really don’t know why.
Asked to pinpoint the sequel’s shortcomings, Form gave a fairly candid answer, stating that Out of the Shadows didn’t bring anything new to the table to truly separate it from 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I think one thing we did learn is you really need to give—you can’t just add characters to a movie and expect that to be what’s fresh. It’s a sequel. You have to give the audience something that’s really new and fresh. Maybe just adding characters from the canon, that wasn’t enough.
Out of the Shadows scurried into theaters during the summer, but after a paltry $245 million at the international box office, it seems like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 is no longer feasible for Paramount.