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 US$47.7m in the U.S. on its way to NZ$162.5m.
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Prospects are bright for China, given its status as a local co-production, which means it’s not part of the 34-title annual quota for US films.
The threequel is the first studio animated event film of 2014, and was produced by DWA and Oriental DreamWorks, with backing from the China Film Group.
Kung Fu Panda 3 has broken the opening weekend record for an animated film in China, earning 383.4m yuan (US$58.3m) since its release on January 29. Strong reviews and a voice cast featuring Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and Seth Rogen once again fuelled the film’s North American success. Despite losing 809 screens the blockbuster managed to bring in an estimated $10.8 million from 2,556 theaters, a decrease of only 23% from last weekend’s gross. Stars Michael Fassbender, Bradley Cooper and Jude Law came and went, the script went through numerous rewrites and its original distributor went bankrupt, the latter helping the film remain in release date limbo for well over a year. With the third installment Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks has successfully made its mark at the box office while retaining creative integrity. The Chris Pine-starring disaster-at-sea pic only made $10.3 million.
Most movies saw narrow drops from last weekend, when winter storm Jonas forced hundreds of theaters to close on the East Coast. The Illumination Ent. film went on to earn $68.5 million in China.
Holdovers “The Revenant” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” took second and third place with $12.4 million and $10.8 million, respectively.
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Open Road Films’ Marlon Wayan’s spoof flick “Fifty Shades of Black” brought in $6.2 million in box office receipts, enough to make it the weekend’s No. 9 film.
