“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.
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“Kung Fu Panda 3” grossed an estimated $10.4 million at the box office on Friday, on its way toward a $40 million opening weekend, well ahead of other newcomers “The Finest Hours” and “Fifty Shades of Black”. Industry watchers are speculating that DWA’s latest film will even top the all-time animation record set by Monkey King: Hero Is Back previous year, at $153 million.
The character of Po poses at the premiere of “Kung Fu Panda 3” at the TCL Chinese theatre in Hollywood, January 16, 2016.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens, continued its blockbuster run for a seventh week, pulling in another $10.8 million. The Disney release, starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster, is expected to gross about $10 million for its opening weekend.
Its first day total already compares favorably against the 116.6 million yuan earned by Universal/Illumination’s Minions last September at a launch which included midnight screenings. The film also had a strong opening in Korea, where it debuted on 1,300-plus screens and took $11.4 million, $380,000 of which was from the 17 participating IMAX theaters.
The voice cast sees the return of franchise stars Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan and Seth Rogen, while Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2) shares directing duties with Alessandro Carloni. The Disney movie, earning an A- CinemaScore, came in No. 3 after Panda 3 and Fox and New Regency’s The Revenant, which remains a potent player in its sixth weekend.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” was playing in 809 fewer locations this weekend than it was last weekend.
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Lastly, The Weinstein Company put the long-suffering Jane Got A Gun out with a wide release this weekend.
