In its domestic debut, Kung Fu Panda 3 won first place with $41 million, falling behind the $47 million of Panda 2 five years ago. The decline, however, was highly compensated by its international numbers, starting with China where the animated movie produced by DreamWorks and Oriental DreamWorks along with China Film Group made a massive $58.3 million, shattering the record held by Minions for animated first week releases in the Middle Kingdom. In Korea, it made $12.8 million, and in Russia over $5 million. Overall, the combined international take in KFP3’s debut weekend was worth $75. 7 million. Featuring the voices of Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Seth Rogen, Kate Hudson and Dustin Hoffman, it had a worldwide total of $115.7 million.

Golden Globe and Oscar nominee Spotlight began its international run with a $4.13 million take in 16 overseas markets. The drama about a special team of reporters (that includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liv Schreiber and John Slattery) uncovering a sex scandal in Boston’s Archidiocese added $1.2 million at the domestic box office and reached a $40.6 million global cumulative.

Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s The Revenant, now in its sixth week in domestic theaters, added $12.4 million at the U.S. and Canada box office to reach a North American cume of $138.7 million. Overseas it finished second as well, taking $46.7 million from 61 foreign markets to get to an international cume of $136.6 million. With a handful of Golden Globe wins, including Best Drama and Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, and multiple Oscar nominations, this ambitious tale of survival and revenge in the harsh American West looks set to continue its steady climb from early art-house superstar to genuine global blockbuster. Iñarritu’s epic, shot entirely with natural light, has so far reached a combined global cumulative of $274.7 million.

Disney’s seafaring epic The Finest Hours, about a daring Coast Guard rescue mission back in 1952 and starring Casey Affleck, Chris Pine, and Eric Bana made its domestic debut in fourth place to the tune of $10.3M. In addition, the picture made $10.6 million abroad. This is somewhat worrying for a film with a reported $70 – $80 million budget, though with an A- Cinemascore and solid word of mouth it may yet recoup its hefty price tag. Conversely, Fifty Shades of Black, had a take of just $6.2 million, but the parody of Fifty Shades of Grey had a reported production cost of just $5 million.

Still on the domestic front Star Wars: The Force Awakens finished third in its seventh week in U.S. and Canadian theaters. After a galaxy-shaking launch just before Christmas, Disney’s newest golden goose is showing a strong set of legs and is inching ever closer to the exalted $2 billion cumulative mark. Overseas it finished fifth, making just $12.6 million, a low figure by its own standards, to reach an international cumulative of $1.08 billion. With a combined figure of $1.983 billion, Star Wars is the third best selling movie in history behind James Cameron’s bulletproof duo of Titanic and Avatar and will very likely sit in the Olympic podium of global box office champions for years to come.

Next week we’ll follow our current top earners of Pride and Prejudice Zombies,The Choice, and Hail Caesar!, a comic homage to Hollywood’s Golden Age signed by Joel and Ethan Cohen and starring among others Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson with special appearances by Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand.

Lorenzo Soria