'TMNT: Mutant Mayhem' Has Already Made $1 Billion

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, the latest reboot of the world’s most notable amphibian martial arts crimefighters, is making hand over fist right now and is projected to have already made over a billion dollars. However, not all of that is due to the box office receipts.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (or TMNT, for time-saving reasons) were created as basically a joke comic book by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984 and seized the world’s imagination almost instantly. At this point, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo have thoroughly transcended their origins as a goofy satire of Frank Miller’s Marvel Comics run on Daredevil and become their own pop culture behemoth.

A big part of the success of TMNT has always been its merchandising. Eastman and Laird sold toy rights to the turtles to Playmates Toys in 1987, which quickly put out a line of action figures inspired by the series. In four years, over a billion dollars worth of TMNT action figures had been sold.

Now, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem has been able to match that gargantuan numbers in a single year.

While the Jeff Rowe-directed movie (who also co-wrote with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit) has crossed the very respectable $100 million line at the box office, Deadline reports that it is estimated to be responsible for at least $1 billion in global retail sales in 2023.

The Turtles battling giant Superfly in New York in Mutant Mayhem — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

For comparison, the TMNT franchise (which is currently owned by Paramount Global) was able to gross $8 billion in a decade of sales since 2012; the boost of the critically acclaimed movie is apparently moving retail sales into overdrive.

Currently, TMTN: Mutant Mayhem merchandise is available at retailers as widespread as Amazon, Walmart, Target, Macy’s, Kroger, Kohl’s, Mercado Libre, Primark, Smyths, The Entertainer, Soriana, Big W, Iden, and Toys R Us, while Paramount has teamed up with huge brands like Hasbro, Playmates, Crayola, Funko, Crocs, General Mills, and Mattel (which is also having a banner year) to produce movie-specific tie-ins.

It all appears to be paying off because in a year dominated by the twin blockbusters of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem seems to be a canny bit of counter-programming.

It also helps that the movie has a ridiculously impressive cast that includes Ayo Edebiri, Maya Rudolph, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Rose Byrne, Natasia Demetriou, Giancarlo Esposito, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Post Malone, Hannibal Buress, and Paul Rudd (who is listed in the cast as “Introducing Paul Rudd”). The turtles themselves were voiced by Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon.

But regardless, it appears that TMNT: Mutant Mayhem is poised to overperform both at the box office and on the global retail level. Pretty good for a Daredevil knockoff.

Have you seen TMNT: Mutant Mayhem in theaters, or are you tired of turtles? Let us know in the comments below!