Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem made franchise history with the unveiling of its Rotten Tomatoes score.
The Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg-produced passion project thrust the Turtles back into the spotlight after more than seven years away from theaters, doing so in dazzling fashion.
The animated epic has earned rave reviews, getting compliments for its "dazzling" visuals and "radical goofiness" that made so many people fall in love with the franchise years ago.
And with such glowing praise, Paramount has been quick to jump on the positive momentum, greenlighting a sequel to the Jeff Rowe-directed blockbuster, as well as two seasons of an animated TV series set in the Mutant Mayhem world.
Mutant Mayhem Makes TMNT Movie History
The latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) film, Mutant Mayhem, has smashed a franchise record on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Mutant Mayhem now holds the crown for the best-reviewed theatrically released Turtles movie on the platform, currently sitting at a 95% Tomatometer score.
It was not a hard bar for Mutant Mayhem to jump over, beating out 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which holds a dismal 42% score.
Thus far, the Ninja Turtles franchise hasn't had the best of luck on the big screen, with the previous six movies averaging just 31.6%. Including Mutant Mayhem's stellar score into that average brings the number up a whole four points to 40.7%.
The full list of theatrically released TMNT films and their Rotten Tomatoes scores can be seen below:
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - 95%
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) - 42%
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) - 37%
- TMNT (2007) - 36%
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secret of the Ooze (1991)- 35%
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) - 21%
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) - 19%
It is worth noting that these numbers do not account for two straight-to-video/streaming Ninja Turtles movies in Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Netflix-released Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie.
What Does Mutant Mayhem's Success Mean?
While it remains to be seen just how long the box office legs for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will be, all this critical success can only mean one thing... this iteration of the Turtles is not going anywhere anytime soon.
Mutant Mayhem feels like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in a lot of ways (only one of them being their innovative art styles. What Into the Spider-Verse hit theaters back in December 2018, it did not light the world on fire - at least from a financial standpoint.
However, it did earn rave reviews (currently sitting at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes) and built a bit of a cult following as time went on. The further out from Spider-Verse's debut the more evangelists it seemed to procure.
Then, when the sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, was ready, the film was released and was both a critical darling and a smash box office hit.
With a sequel to Mutant Mayhem already greenlit, Paramount's Heroes in a Half-Shell could very well follow in Spider-Verse's steps, with that next film being the true coming-out party amongst the mainstream after fans of the first film had spent the last few years singing its praises from the roof.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is in theaters now worldwide.
