August is off to a huge start at the box office.
Despite poor reviews, the rebooted "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" debuted to a huge $65 million over the weekend. That makes it August's fourth-largest opening weekend ever behind "Guardians of the Galaxy" ($94.3 million), "The Bourne Ultimatum" ($69.3 million), and "Rush Hour 2" ($67.4 million).
The Paramount picture produced by Michael Bay cost an estimated $125 million.
A sequel to the film is already slated for June 3, 2016.
The high performance of "TMNT" comes one week after "Guardians of the Galaxy" set a new August record with $94.3 million opening weekend. Marvel Studios' latest picture has already made $313 million worldwide.
The performance of both "Ninja Turtles" and "Guardians" has helped a slumping box-office summer season. Earlier this summer, box office ticket sales were down as much as 20% without a huge film like “Iron Man,” “Avengers,” or “The Dark Knight.” Grosses for the July 4 weekend were down 45%.
The Hollywood Reporter has referred to summer 2014 as Hollywood’s worst summer in eight years. It will be the first time no summer film will make more than $300 million domestically.
After this weekend, summer sales are behind 16.8%.
SEE ALSO: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is more like "The Megan Fox Show"