Note: This review contains spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.
While the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ first foray into live action proved rather profitable, making $202 million worldwide (lifetime) on a budget of a mere $13.5 million, the wider franchise couldn’t replicate its success. As the 1990s continued, the initial wave of Turtlemania waned thanks to declining toy sales and 1987 cartoon viewership, on top of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (TMNT II) pulling in a lower box office performance ($78.7 million against a $25 million budget) than the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film (TMNT I). In an effort to squeeze more money out of the franchise while they still could, Golden Harvest would produce a third film, simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (TMNT III), released in 1993, that not only continued the trend of diminishing returns (earning $54.4 million against a $21 million budget), but earned a reputation for driving the franchise into relative dormancy until the 2003 cartoon aired. As someone who had just missed Turtlemania by virtue of being born too late for it, I had no real attachment to the turtles until later incarnations, which eventually led me to slowly exploring other parts of the franchise, including the live-action films. During my recent journey of watching the films in order, I ended up at TMNT III and finished with a complete understanding of why it couldn’t turn a profit.
