China Movie News: ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Doesn’t Kick Off Strong

The new movie ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ started off as the top movie in China this week. But it didn’t do as well as expected, making it a quiet weekend for the cinemas.

The movie, made by Universal-DreamWorks Animation, earned $14.7 million (about RMB105 million) from Friday to Sunday. Including the money it made from previews last week, it totaled $25.9 million (around RMB184 million) by Sunday.

Comparing this to the last movie, ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’, which came out in 2016, this new one didn’t do as well. ‘Kung Fu Panda 3’ made $57.8 million in its first weekend and previews.

Unlike the third movie, which was made in cooperation with China, ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ is considered a foreign movie in China. This means it has to follow certain rules about how many foreign movies can be shown in cinemas.

Another movie, ‘The Pig, The Snake and the Pigeon’, which is already on Netflix outside China, dropped to second place in China. It made $6.8 million in its fourth weekend, totaling $84.6 million since its release on March 1.

‘Dune 2’, from Legendary East, earned $4.6 million and fell to third place in its third weekend. It has made $44.2 million so far.

A new movie called ‘Viva La Vida’ got fourth place based on previews. It made $3.6 million and will officially release on March 30. Including its previous release on February 10, it has made $16.6 million.

‘Remember Me’ dropped to fifth place, making $2.2 million over the weekend. It has made $12.2 million in total after ten days.

Overall, the total earnings for movies in China this weekend were $39.5 million. So far this year, Chinese cinemas have made $2.24 billion, which is 5% more than last year at this time according to Artisan Gateway.