KUNG FU PANDA 4 opening | IMAGINARY opening | CABRINI opening | March 8 to 10, 2024 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: March 8 to 10, 2024
1) Kung Fu Panda 4 opening
- This is an excellent opening for an animation sequel that’s this far into its series. Only 10 other animated stories in modern history have generated four episodes, including Toy Story, Despicable Me/Minions, Ice Age, Shrek, and Madagascar. This is elite animation business.
The opening weekend is well above average for a 4th episode animation sequel, and it’s substantially ahead of #3's opening.
Most animation series are winding down at this point (4th episode openings average down -37%). Kung Fu Panda is showing terrific strength now, with good momentum for another sequel:
- International numbers have been strong for these films, with a big contribution from China (#3 finished with $154.3m there in 2016, and #2 made $92.2m in 2011). American animation has declined in China along with all American movies (Wish just finished with $6m, and Migration finished with $2.2m, both anemic). This story has uniquely Asian elements — we’ll see if that’s enough to overcome difficult conditions in the market.
2) Imaginary opening
- This is a solid opening for an original horror film. The weekend start is a bit above average for a single-episode horror opening, and below average for the launch of a horror series. Critics’ reviews and audience scores are weak (a C+ CinemaScore), but that's not uncommon for horror movies.
This is another very reasonably priced Blumhouse production (the cost was somewhere between $10m and $13m). The film is going to be profitable after all ancillary income is counted:
3) Cabrini opening
- This is a good opening for a faith-based drama. Faith-based dramas are not big movies, and this opening is above average for the genre. Reviews and audience scores are outstanding (an A CinemaScore).
Alejandro Monteverde directed both Sound of Freedom and Cabrini. The first movie opened on a Tuesday, July 4th, and had a big first weekend. This start is not on that level, but these are different movies: Cabrini is a period biographical drama, and Sound of Freedom is a suspense crime story. A period biography is not going to do the same kind of business a suspense crime story does.
Angels Studios has built a dedicated fan base for their films, and faith-based dramas have a way of hanging around. Cabrini should hold up well:
Overall
- This past week, the domestic box office finished down -3% compared with the 2019/2018/2017 pre-pandemic average, and this coming week should be down around -10%. Those are good numbers, after January and February were off by -49%.
Dune and Kung Fu Panda are bringing moviegoing back to healthy levels, and Ghostbusters and Godzilla x Kong will open in two and three weekends. Event pictures are what drive the box office, and they’re flowing again. January and February was a long drought — that's over now, and the BO is starting to build some momentum.