‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ tops box office; ‘Finest Hours’ flounders

“Kung Fu Panda 3” was produced by DreamWorks Animation and four-year-old Oriental DreamWorks, the joint venture founded by DWA and Chinese investors with the aim of producing mainly Chinese-themed films.

The Jack Black-starring sequel of Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2 made $41 million, crushing the previous January animated movie opening weekend record of $19.4 million held by The Nut Job.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is still bringing audiences to the theater.

A Mandarin language version of the film will also be released in China featuring a voice cast that includes Jackie Chan.

“Kung Fu Panda 3” received a strong “A” rating from first-night moviegoers on CinemaScore and got a good 80 percent approval rating from critics on Totten Tomatoes. “We want it to feel like a completed journey, and we feel this movie (Kung Fu Panda 3) does (offer a firm conclusion)”. The film is estimated to have garnered $116 million globally, though numbers won’t be officially released until Monday.

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.

Fourth was The Finest Hours, a rescue-at-sea drama that made an estimated US$10.3 million on its debut weekend. The Disney film has earned $895 million domestically and an additional $1.087 billion from overseas.

Starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, it is based on the true story of a 1952 rescue of a ship that breaks apart during a raging New England nor’easter.

Internationally, the film brought in an estimated $75 million during its opening weekend in five territories including China and Korea, according to 20th Century Fox.

Marlon Wayans’ spoof Fifty Shades of Black generated only middling business at about US$6m at 2,075 locations and Natalie Portman’s oft-delayed Western Jane Got a Gun was almost invisible with less than US$1m at 1,210 screens.

Best picture Oscar contender “The Big Short” crossed the $100 million mark at the worldwide box office.