In China, Kung Fu Panda 3 opened to a super $58.3-M over the weekend, the biggest launch of all time for an animated film there. The third movie is a co-production between DreamWorks and its Chinese spin-off, Oriental DreamWorks, so it qualifies as a local production – and therefore will be allowed to play for longer than the 30-day restriction on foreign films.
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Taking the No. 1 spot at the box office in commanding fashion is “Kung Fu Panda 3”, bringing in an estimated $41 million.
And in an interview earlier this month (Jan16), Kung Fu Panda 3 co-director Alessandro Carloni noted although several franchise instalments are in the works, all of these movies are being treated as standalone releases. Both movies have fallen well short of the original Kung Fu Panda’s strong $60 million opening weekend in the summer of 2008, but given that both sequels have opened above the $40 million mark shows some staying power for the franchise.
A heroic action-thriller, The Finest Hours is the remarkable true story of the greatest small boat rescue in Coast Guard history. Star Wars: The Force Awakens added $10.7 million and is nearing $900 million in North America alone. Starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, and Eric Bana, the inspirational drama did earn an A- CinemaScore, but it only managed to secure fourth place.
One other new release cracked the top ten: the comedy spoof, Fifty Shades of Black, earned $6-million, good for ninth place.
Back on the top 10 chart, Alejandro G. Inarritu’s awards frontrunner The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, came in # 2 with $12.4 million for a domestic total of $138.2 million.
And at No. 3, old faithful, bringing in an estimated $10.7 million. According to Box Office Mojo, the Natalie Portman movie took in $803,000 from 1,210 theaters.
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The battling bear toon’s first day box office was second among animated films only to the 116.6 million RMB (17.6 million dollars) earned by Illumination’s Minions last September.
