The story at the box office this weekend was how poorly the new releases did. Of the three, only Let’s Be Cops outperformed, while The Expendables 3 and The Giver bombed. That meant that for a second week in a row, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy were at the top.

TMNT scored $28.4 million in its second weekend, after opening to $65 million the previous weekend. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that’s a decent 57 percent drop, so the film held on a little better than expected. After two weeks, the movie is up to $117.6 million, easily justifying Paramount’s decision to make a sequel.

Marvel and Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy added another $24.7 million. The film has now passed the $200 million mark domestically, raking in $222.3 million in total. It has also reached the $400 million mark globally. That’s pretty good for a movie starring a talking racoon.

The best new release of the weekend was somehow Let’s Be Cops, Fox’s buddy comedy starring Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans, Jr. while it has earned terrible reviews, the film managed to make $17.7 million. However, the movie has been in theaters since Wednesday, so its five-day total is $26.1 million.

Now, the biggest surprise was just how badly Expendables 3 did. Most analysts expected somewhere just north of $20 million, but as Box Office Mojo notes, it made only $16.2 million. That’s 63 percent worse than Expendables 2, which only came out two years ago.

Sure, Lionsgate and Sylvester Stallone could blame the piracy scandal all they want, but that can only be one reason why the movie failed so badly. Audiences could be tired of seeing action stars past their prime relive former glories. Others might have been turned off by the new movie’s PG-13 rating since the other two were rated R. The only good bit of news for the studio is that it still has international openings and that it got an A- CinemaScore grade from those that saw it.

The Giver began its run with just $12.8 million. The Weinstein Company missed the boat on that one. Lois Lowry’s novel may have influenced The Hunger Games, but since The Hunger Games movie came first, audiences who hadn’t read the novel may have just thought it was a knock-off. Poor reviews certainly didn’t help either.

image courtesy of INFphoto.com