Kung Fu Panda 3 kicks up $63.3m on its opening weekend

Kung Fu Panda 3 broke the record in China for the biggest animated movie opening of all time at $53 million over the weekend. Thanks to a hold over of strong performers from 2015, new movies have had a hard time breaking into the top three, much less the number on spot.

“Kung Fu Panda 3”, which opened in China on the same day as the US, brought in $57 million, according to preliminary reports.

For many of Hollywood’s studios and producers, Kung Fu Panda 3 is a ditch attempt to restore their fortunes in China after a long stretch of underperforming American films.

“Kung Fu Panda 3”, DreamWorks Animation’s latest film in the cartoon panda franchise, grossed an estimated $41 million in the US and Canada.

The first major US-China co-production film surpassed Minions as the top animated opener in China at $50 million in its first eight days.

Back in 2010, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg revealed there are six chapters in the Kung Fu Panda movie series.

“The Finest Hours”, starring Chris Pine and Casey Affleck, performed in line with muted forecasts but the results are an obvious disappointment for Disney, given its reported $70 million budget.

The Revenant, a grisly tale of backcountry survival and revenge starring Leonardo DiCaprio and showered with Oscar nominations, settled into second after topping the rankings last week. The good news: The parody cost a modest $5 million to make.

Disney’s launch of Coast Guard rescue adventure “The Finest Hours” saw only modest returns with $10.3 million at 3,143 sites – trailing both “The Revenant” and the seventh weekend of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. It grossed an estimated $6.2 million for a ninth place, below analysts prediction of between $10 million and $15 million.

The Weinstein Co.is releasing Jane Got a Gun on behalf of the producers, who pulled the film from Relativity Media last summer as Relativity faced bankruptcy.