Box office: ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ surpasses ‘Dune: Part Two’ to win the weekend with $58.3 million

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
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It looks like “Dune: Part Two” reinvigorated the box office so well last weekend that it had to take a backseat to a perfectly-timed family animated sequel in its second weekend. Read on for the weekend box office report.

DreamWorks Animation and Universal knew that they were likely to have a big hit with the animated sequel “Kung Fu Panda 4,” returning Jack Black to the popular martial arts cartoon character Po, which would benefit from the character’s presence on streaming, as well as from the lack of animated movies in theaters. The mostly positive reviews put “Kung Fu Panda 4” at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes, and being the only animated feature for family audiences allowed it to bring in $19.25 million on Friday, including $3.8 million from Thursday previews. Universal has estimated it winning the weekend quite soundly with $58.3 million in 4,035 theaters, and audiences were generally positive, giving it an “A-” on audience polling site CinemaScore. That opening is better than the $41.3 million for “Kung Fu Panda 3” in 2016 and just behind the $60.2 million opening of the original “Kung Fu Panda” back in 2008.

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“Kung Fu Panda 4” achieved the biggest animated opening since last year’s “The Super Mario Bros Movie,” and the biggest opening for DreamWorks Animation since the $60.3 million opening for “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted” all the way back in 2012. DreamWorks’s biggest opening after that was the $55 million made by “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” in 2019, so it shows why so many animation studios are focusing more on sequels and franchises than original movies. “Kung Fu Panda 4” added another $22.2 million overseas in 41 territories for a global opening of $80.5 million.

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That meant that Denis Villeneuve‘s “Dune: Part Two” had to settle for second place in its second weekend with $46 million, which was down just 44% from its opening weekend. Even before the weekend “Part Two” surpassed the entire $110 million domestic run of Villeneuve’s “Part One,” which was released simultaneously on the HBO Max streamer back in 2021. The sequel has now grossed $157 million, already making it the biggest movie of the year so far.

At first, it looked like a fairly close race between the other two new wide releases, but Lionsgate and Blumhouse’s high-concept horror film “Imaginary” pulled ahead with $3.6 million on Friday in 3,118 theaters and an estimated $10 million by Sunday to take third place for the weekend. That was despite receiving terrible reviews, with a mere 31% on Rotten Tomatoes. According to CinemaScore, audiences weren’t that crazy about the movie either, giving it a “C+.”

Angel Studios opened the religious biopic “Cabrini,” starring Cristiana Dell’Anna as the inspirational nun, into 2,840 theaters on Friday. It received great reviews with 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. After making $3.1 million on Friday, “Cabrini” took in an estimated $7.6 million in its first weekend, so a little less than expected. But it received the best CinemaScore of the weekend with an “A,” so it could end up turning its positive word-of-mouth into strong legs leading up to Easter weekend.

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With so many stronger newer releases, everything else dropped with the musical biopic “Bob Marley: One Love” taking fifth place with $4.1 million (down 45%) in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $89.3 million.

The Lionsgate drama “Ordinary Angels,” starring Hilary Swank, dropped to sixth with $2 million, down 47% in its third weekend but with a domestic total of $16.1 million.

Seventh and eighth place were taken by Sony’s “Madame Web” and Universal’s “Migration” with $1.1 million each, “Madame Web” having lost over 1,100 theaters for a 64% drop with just $42.6 million grossed so far. “Migration” also lost theaters and dropped 56%, but that was expected with the stronger new animated movie hitting theaters.

The Chinese drama “Yolo,” directed by and starring China’s top woman director Jia Ling, was released by Sony into 200 domestic theaters, allowing it to break into the top 10 with $840,000, averaging $4,200 per theater.

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A24 released Rose Glass‘s queer crime-thriller “Love Lies Bleeding,” starring Kristen Stewart, into five theaters in New York and L.A., where it grossed $167,000, averaging $33,493 per location. On Friday, it will expand into 1,200 theaters nationwide.

The majority of players in Gold Derby’s box office prediction game picked “Dune: Part Two” to win a second weekend at the box office. Fewer players had “Kung Fu Panda” beating it, and more players had “Cabrini” opening in fifth place, rather than fourth. It will be interesting to see how things pan out.

Four players got perfect six-for-six scores in the March 1 game, but “RichRo” received the most points out of those with 23,676 by putting his Super Bet on “The Chosen” taking fourth place.

On Friday more new movies open, including Mark Wahlberg‘s “Arthur the King,” Anthony Hopkins in “One Life,” and “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” so check out Gold Derby’s weekend preview on Wednesday to learn more about those.

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