It’s more likely than not that movie studios wished that they had a crystal ball. Sometimes hits feel like a sure thing, while others may not seem like they have the potential to break out. In the case of the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, several major studios turned down the movie adaptation of the niche comic book IP and popular animated series. There was this fear that the film would be a box office disappointment and would only appeal to a distinct audience, but it was a little independent production company called New Line Cinema that saw the potential in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their intuition led to them releasing the highest-grossing independent movie up to that time.
Perhaps the major studios shouldn’t be blamed for being reluctant. The comic book wasn’t Batman or Spider-Man, by any means, even though it did have a niche audience. There was also the 1980s animated series that was truly popular with kids, but the script for the movie, written by Todd W. Langen and Bobby Herbeck, was more of a tribute to the grittiness of the source material rather than the colorful nature of the animated show that spawned action figures and other merchandise. It was certainly an odd mix and not one that had been really explored at the time, and likely made the studios woner who the film would be made for.
Everyone Thought a Live-Action ‘TMNT’ Movie Was a Bad Idea
Credit to Gary Propper, a road manager for the comic Gallagher, who saw the potential in a live-action adaptation. With the help of producer Kim Dawson, Gallagher convinced comic book writers Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird to option the rights for a live-action take on TMNT, but that would prove to be the easiest part of the journey. Once they began pitching the film around Hollywood, many thought they had lost their minds trying to get something like this made. Dawson had previously worked at Showtime on Gallagher’s comedy specials, and she also said the recent failure of Howard the Duck played a part in the resistance from most studios.
Keep in mind, that comic book movies were not the norm. 1978’s Superman set the standard, while 1989’s Batman ushered in a brand-new way to make comic book movies, but it was far from the way things are today. There weren’t enough examples of success on the table to stand behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, especially since it was such a far-out-there idea to begin with. Given the martial arts angle of the source material, Herbeck wanted to take the idea to the Hong Kong-based studio Golden Harvest because they were popular for releasing Bruce Lee’s magnum opus, Enter the Dragon, but even they weren’t initially interested.
Related
The 10 Most Profitable Movies That Started as Books
While they could have been based on bestsellers, these movies were also massive box office hits.
By 1988, Herbeck’s persistence paid off with Golden Harvest and they greenlit the project with a mere $3 million budget. Steve Barron, known primarily for doing music videos, was brought on to direct the film. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop was in charge of bringing the turtles to life if they could get more money to do the movie. Three million dollars wasn’t enough for what Henson had to offer, and that’s when the request went in to raise the budget to $6 million or more. At the time, it was one of the most ambitious things Henson’s Creature Shop had done, because they had to create the turtles for the action scenes, essentially people in suits that would bring all that to life and animatronics that would be responsible for facial expressions.
Even though Golden Harvest put in money to start the film, the movie still didn’t have a distributor, and they couldn’t finance the movie on their own for distribution. According to Barron, there was a deal in place with Fox, but that disappeared following a change at the top. Ten days before the film was to begin shooting, no studio was backing the movie, and the one deal that seemed like a sure thing had fallen apart. This is when Gray thought of the saving grace of New Line Cinema.
New Line Cinema Saw the Vision
New Line Cinema was the perfect home for TMNT. This was the “House that Freddy Built,” called this because of the success they had because they banked on Wes Craven and A Nightmare on Elm Street, which turned into a lucrative franchise for them in the ’80s. They saw what having faith in unconventional and unproven ideas could do, making their union with TMNT simply meant to be. Gray linked up with New Line founder Bob Shaye and let them know they needed $6 million more to make the movie they wanted. Shaye knew they had nowhere else to go and actually gave them a little less, but Golden Harvest was able to make up the difference.
What New Line Cinema really offered the film was the vision of how to promote it and giving it the right release date of March 30, 1990. New Line believed in releasing it during a non-holiday because they knew it would have stabilized sales during its run rather than a big opening weekend and quick drop-off. It’s crazy how no one else really saw how this could be the perfect storm of success with the cartoon, merchandise, and now the movie.
Related
15 Movies That Are Pure ‘90s Time Capsules
The ’90s captured society’s fascination and fear of tech through films reflecting cyberpunk aesthetics, digital innovation, and analog nostalgia.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles exceeded all expectations when it opened to $25 million during its opening weekend, pulling in the biggest opening weekend for an independent film at the time. The film tapped into an audience that respected the comic book material and appreciated the film’s willingness to be as gritty as it could be, but also kids who latched on to its youthful energy and were all in on the adventures involving Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael. It was a pop-cultural movement and one that became the highest-grossing independent film at the time when it grossed $135 million domestically and $202 million globally on a $13.5 million budget.
If anything, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, even 35 years after its release, proves that even if an idea seems offbeat, it just takes someone to believe in and foster it to make it a success.
Source link
Add Comment