It wasn't exactly the biggest weekend at the US box office, but the resounding champion was a portly panda named Po, as DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda 3 handily saw off some lacklustre competition to score the top spot of the charts with $41 million according to studio estimates.
Though he had to put up with a lower opening figure than the other two films in the franchise, the animated adventures of Jack Black's kung fu warrior continued to score well with critics and connected with family audiences on the lookout for new fodder to keep the younglings entertained. It remains to be seen whether it has the chi energy to make the same sort of money as its predecessors. Last week's top spot hog The Revenant fell just one place to second with $12.4 million, as Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest notched up a healthy $138.1 million for its current US total, earning back at least its production budget in the States alone.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens also slipped one place, falling to third, yet adding $10.7 million to its own Stateside total, pushing that to $895.4 million and more than $1.9 billion globally. Disney will be pleased with that, especially as its latest non-franchise film, based-on-truth tale The Finest Hours, didn't exactly launch with a big result. A Coast Guard rescue drama starring Chris Pine, the film earned a slightly disappointing $10.3 million in its first weekend for a fourth place start. Rounding out the top five we have Ride Along 2, which earned $8.3 million.
In sixth place was horror thriller The Boy, which added $7.8 million for a $21.5 million total to date, while Dirty Grandpa, which has seemingly failed to please the crowds, dropped a few places to seventh an $7.5 million. The 5th Wave fell from sixth to eighth and $7 million, but the worst news awaiting a filmmaking team this weekend was for Marlon Wayans' latest spoof, Fifty Shades Of Black, which arrived at ninth with a desultory $6.1 million. Finally, Michael Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi dropped to 10th, taking in $6 million, for a $42.5 million total so far. Given its $42 million budget, Bay and co. will have to hope it makes a decent amount internationally to recoup its own budget.