Kung Fu Panda 3 Kung Fu-ed the Record Books

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. Numbers for China weren’t immediately available.

Directed once again by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, this time with Alessandro Carloni, the new Kung Fu Panda film sees the roundhouse-kicking bear meet his birth family for the first time, as well as graduating to become a teacher of martial arts. DWA needs a solid swing after a string of high-profile misses that resulted in layoffs and a shakeup in leadership ranks. However, it’s the lowest opening weekend for the series yet, after $60.2 million for the first “Panda” in 2008 and $47.7 million for the sequel three years later. But Po doesn’t fit in, and to make matters worse, he and his cohorts soon find themselves battling an evil spirit terrorizing all of China. Starring Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, and Eric Bana, the inspirational drama did earn an A- CinemaScore, but it only managed to secure fourth place.

On on the top 10 chart, Alejandro G. Inarritu’s awards frontrunner “The Revenant”, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, came in No. 2.

Chinese netizens who caught the movie over the weekend mostly praised its visual effects, although several said they didn’t like the new film’s plot.

A heroic action-thriller, The Finest Hours is the remarkable true story of the greatest small boat rescue in Coast Guard history. Ben Foster, Holliday Grainger, John Ortiz and Eric Bana also star in the film, which had trouble gaining traction in prerelease tracking.

Marlon Wayans’ spoof of E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey opened to $6.2 million in 2,982 locations, earning a C CinemaScore. On the plus side for the studio, it only cost around $6 million to produce.

Fifty Shades of Black, on the other hand, barely managed to scrape ninth place. The $25 million western starring Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Joel Edgerton has had the working definition of “a troubled production”.

But what’s more impressive than all of that is it’s actually a solid movie.