Grand Opening For Kung Fu Panda 3

According to Forbes, the enthusiasm with which the film has been met in the Chinese market has led several analysts to predict that Kung Fu Panda 3 has the potential to break box office records for the biggest three-day bow ever for an animated title in China. That’s behind the first two films in the franchise, which opened at $60 million and $47.6 million, respectively.

“Kung Fu Panda 3”, the third installment in the DreamWorks Animation franchise, had a $140 million budget and was tracking somewhere between $45 million to $50 million.

The latest sequel, which is distributed domestically by Fox, features the return of Jack Black as the voice of Po, the portly but heroic panda bear, as well as vocal contributions by Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu and Bryan Cranston.

“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.

This time, Kung Fu Panda 3 is on track for a better run than its predecessors, simply because it’ll have more time in theaters.

Disney and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens came in No. 4 with an estimated $10.8 million as it approaches the $900 million mark in North America and $2 billion globally. The movie has now made $274 million worldwide.

“The Revenant” was in second place with an estimated 12.4 million dollars in sales this weekend, which was down a slim 23 percent compared with last week’s ticket sales.

In great command of the action as well as their adversaries, Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Holliday Grainger, Eric Bana, and Ben Foster put in fine performances.

Comedy Ride Along 2 was fifth with US$8.3 million in receipts. And “Jane Got a Gun” (the Weinstein Co.), which suffered production difficulties and cost $25 million to make, collected $908,000. The movie’s domestic total through Sunday is a projected $895 million.

Fifty Shades of Black, on the other hand, barely managed to scrape ninth place.