Kung Fu Panda 3 fights off box office challengers
Kung Fu Panda 3 kicked its way to the top of the North American box office with a respectable $41 million (U.S.), according to Rentrak estimates Sunday.
The DreamWorks Animation film cost a reported $145 million to make and earned a strong “A” CinemaScore from audiences — 70 per cent of whom were families.
“It’s a bold move to take a franchise which has had great success in that summer corridor and move it into late January, which is generally considered a very slow time,” Rentrak’s senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said. “It also filled a huge void in the marketplace.”
The first film opened to $60.2 million in 2008 and the second to $47.7 million in 2011.
For Fox, switching up the release was a no-brainer after seeing the successes of The Lego Movie and last year’s The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water in this time frame. “We know that when the market conditions are right, this business really is a 365-day-a-year business,” said Chris Aronson, Fox’s domestic distribution chief.
The animated sequel also fared much better than the weekend’s other new openers, including Disney’s coast guard adventure The Finest Hours, which debuted in fourth place with $10.3 million.
The Fifty Shades of Grey parody Fifty Shades of Black, meanwhile, earned a modest $6.2 million, but only cost a reported $5 million to produce.
There wasn’t much space for newcomers with strong holdovers such as The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which took second and third place with $12.4 million and $10.8 million, respectively.
Notably, Fox’s The Revenant, once considered a possible box office disaster with its gritty subject matter and reported $135-million budget, has earned $138.2 million to date in six weeks in theatres thanks in part to its awards hot streak with multiple wins for star Leonardo DiCaprio and a host of high-profile Oscar nominations.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theatres, according to Rentrak. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. 1. Kung Fu Panda 3, $41million. 2. The Revenant, $12.4 million. 3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, $10.8 million. 4. The Finest Hours, $10.3 million. 5. Ride Along 2, $8.3 million.