The bizarre movie that spent almost a decade as the highest-grossing independent film ever made
The history of cinema is full of strange twists of fate, quirks of timing, and enormously successful projects that nobody thought would make a dime. In 1990, though, a bizarre independent film was released, and it was all three of these things rolled into one. The action-packed movie became the highest-grossing independent film ever made and held onto that title for nine long years.
Paradoxically, though, it also helped spawn one of the biggest media properties of the last 40 years, which is why very few people remember it was an indie production to begin with.
The origins of the movie in question go back to November 1983. Struggling comic book creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were working on their strip Fugitoid late one night in Mirage Studios – also known as a small room in Laird’s Dover, New Hampshire home. Out of nowhere – maybe boredom, maybe procrastination, maybe divine inspiration – Eastman drew a human-sized ninja turtle holding a pair of nunchucks. When he showed it to Laird, the two friends laughed at the absurd concept – but then Laird drew his weapon-wielding turtle. Pretty soon, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were born.
The two comic book fanatics took heavy inspiration from Frank Miller’s legendary Daredevil run, as well as his creator-owned opus Ronin, and began independently publishing their own black-and-white Turtles comics. Over the next few years, their weird ninja animal book began selling out each and every time they published an issue, and in 1987, Eastman landed Playmates Toys as a Turtles licensor. That same year, a Saturday morning cartoon debuted, and in 1989 a Nintendo video game hit the market.
During this period, the Turtles kept gathering steam as a media property, with toys flying off the shelves and kids everywhere becoming obsessed with the animated adventures. Eastman and Laird wanted to explore the possibility of a live-action Turtles movie, though, and with all the success they’d experienced so far, they could’ve been forgiven for thinking it would be a piece of cake to get it greenlit. They were wrong, though. In fact, no major studio in Hollywood wanted anything to do with the Turtles.
The creators wanted the movie to be closer in tone to their original comics, which were much grittier and more violent than the kid-friendly animated show. They imagined dudes in foam rubber latex turtle costumes doing battle with the Foot clan on the rain-soaked streets of New York City, and studio executives baulked at the idea, unwilling to relinquish their biggest market. For one thing, the costumes, which were to be made by the legendary Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, were expensive propositions – far too expensive to be associated with such a dark, moody production. Even Henson himself had to be talked into signing up because the level of violence in the comic made him nervous.
With no big studio ready to take a flyer on the Turtles, producer Gary Propper reached out to Hong Kong production company Golden Harvest. It agreed to put in $3million, but that tiny budget quickly spiralled out of control, leading to the production being out of money a week before shooting was scheduled to begin. Propper made a “Hail Mary” call to New Line Cinema, an independent company then best known for the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and it agreed to kick in some more funds. The budget was still much lower than it should have been for such a groundbreaking production, but director Steve Barron and his team somehow made it work.
All the hard work and genuine financial peril paid off when the movie hit cinemas on March 30, 1990, though. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rocketed to a $25million opening weekend, a record at that time for a film released outside the holidays, and would eventually gross a mammoth $202million. On a budget of only $13.5million, this made it the highest-grossing independent film in history. It clung to that title for nine years before finally being usurped in 1999 when The Blair Witch Project saw three student filmmakers fall afoul of a vengeful spirit in the Burkittsville woods.
Overall, it’s hard to look at the story of the Turtles as anything other than a triumph for the little guy. Eastman and Laird had a wacky idea they believed in, and they turned it into a goldmine. Hollywood still didn’t value it, though, conveniently ignoring the hordes of children and comic book geeks worldwide who loved the Turtles. They wanted nothing more than to see Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Donatello on the big screen, and they got their wish by hook or crook.
In fact, it’s unsurprising to suggest that Hollywood’s initially missing the boat on the Turtles movie is part of why the industry is so obsessed with IP these days. It’s just bizarre that the modern push to solely greenlight properties audiences recognize began with an IP created as a gag by two independent artists in their home studio.
