‘Panda’ Beats Box Office Rivals

“Kung Fu Panda 3” kicked its way to the top of the movie box office over the weekend with domestic receipts of $41 million. “Panda 3” is a co-production between DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., in Glendale and Oriental DreamWorks, the joint venture founded by the studio and Chinese investors. The film brought in $57 million in China for the opening weekend, making it the best opening for an animated film in that country. Total worldwide box office for the film distributed by 20th Century Fox and featuring the voices of Jack Black, Jackie Chan and Dustin Hoffman was $116.7 million. Other new films debuting over the weekend were “The Finest Hours” from Walt Disney Co. in Burbank with $10 million domestic; “Fifty Shades of Black,” from Open Road Films with $6.2 million domestic and “Jane Got A Gun” from Weinstein Co. with less than $1 million domestic. The high box office for “Panda 3” represents a positive shift for DreamWorks Animation, which at this time last year was announcing a restructuring plan that saw top executives leave, a reduction in the number of feature films released, the closing of an animation studio in Redwood City, the laying off of about 500 employees and the sale and leaseback of the Glendale headquarters. DreamWorks Animation released only one film last year, “Home,” which brought in $386 million in global box office receipts and was a rare bright spot for the studio. Two of three releases from 2014, “Mr. Peabody and Sherman” and “Penguins of Madagascar” lost money, requiring DreamWorks to take a write down on both. Shares closed down $1.74, or 6.8 percent, to $23.90 on the Nasdaq.