"Kung Fu Panda" 3 dominated China's box office with an impressive $57 million launch weekend - $16 million ahead of the United States opening.
With no much competition in the week before the Chinese New Year, the third installment of the franchise easily took the weekly box office crown from Jan. 25 to Jan. 31, taking over all theatre-going activity in its home territory.
Precisely, the film grossed $52.2 million in just three days, setting a new opening weekend record for a Chinese-produced animation. By Sunday, it had earned a total of $58.2 million including the previews from the weekend earlier.
According to Variety, the figure was achieved from ticket sales amounting to $9.38 million at 278,000 screenings. The movie was also shown on 272 IMAX screens and became the best ever performance for an animated film in Chinese format, with $3.8 million sales. The previous record was held by "How to Train Your Dragon 2" with cumulative earnings of $2.87 million.
Through the weekend, "Kung Fu Panda 3" overtook "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip" by $15.6 million on Friday, "Lost in The Pacific" by $19.1 million on Saturday and "Lost" by $16.1 million on Sunday.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" had previously ruled the market for three weeks, with $6.38 million and a cumulative lift of $123.69 million in 23 days, but "Panda" pushed it to the second place.
According to Screen Daily, "Kung Fu Panda 3" is a co-production between shanghai-based Oriental DreamWorks and U.S-based DreamWorks, and therefore, it is considered a local Chinese film.
Apparently, the producers delivered two versions - one in mandarin and the other in English - allowing for lip-synching and different original voice casts. As per the results, the efforts paid off as the film ended up being the top performer internationally for over three days.
The Chinese figures for the weekend bypassed the American total of $41 million, and the three-day China score went on to make "Kung Fu Panda 3" the outlying winner of both the week and the weekend.
Watch a clip of "Kung Fu Panda's" performance below: