Kung Fu Panda 3 Power kicks his way onto Kiwei screens on March 24.
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“Kung Fu Panda 3”, distributed by Fox for DreamWorks Animation, will finish its first weekend near 2011’s “Kung Fu Panda 2“, which opened with $47.7 million domestically on its way to $162.5 million. Featuring Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and more in the voice cast, it received an A grade from audience. The action film/comedy exceeded studio expectations of $35 million, but came in $4 million shy of analyst projections. 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.
“Kung Fu Panda 3 definitely feels like the end of a trilogy and wraps up the dragon warrior’s story in a complete and satisfying way”, IGN’s Max Nicholson said. The new film easily won the weekend, while other new releases were buried behind holdovers. Overseas, the film pulled in a big $75 million in its debut.
Back in 2010, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg revealed there are six chapters in the Kung Fu Panda movie series.
Fifty Shades of Black, spoofing Fifty Shades of Grey, came in No. 9 with roughly $6 million from 2,075 theaters after earning a C CinemaScore. The film is estimated to have garnered $116 million globally, though numbers won’t be officially released until Monday.
Placing fourth was the new rescue thriller, The Finest Hours, with $10-million.
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“The Revenant” held onto second place for the third time since its release, bringing in an estimated million and pushing the Oscar heavyweight to a $274 million worldwide total. It stars Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton and Ewan McGregor. That film opened in May that year, rather than January. The IMAX screenings alone (289 theaters) brought in $4.2 million for the CG sequel.
