Kung Fu Panda 3

In 2010, DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg announced that the Kung Fu Panda franchise was planned to have six movies, or "chapters", altogether.[12] In July 2012, Kung Fu Panda 3 was officially confirmed by Bill Damaschke, DWA's chief creative officer.[13]

The film was made as a co-production between DreamWorks Animation and Oriental DreamWorks, a Shanghai-based studio, founded in 2012 as a partnership between DreamWorks Animation and Chinese companies. One third of the film was made in China, and the rest in the United States, at DWA.[14][15] This was the first time that any major American animated feature film had been co-produced with a Chinese firm.[16] The filmmakers worked closely with SAPPRFT to ensure the film's release in China.[17] As a film with a co-production status in China, it allowed the production companies to circumvent the country's strict import quota and take a greater share of box-office revenue than imported films.[15][18] To ensure the film's success in China, in addition to the English version, the Chinese version of the film was also fully animated, making them the only versions that have the characters' lips synchronized with their voices.[19]

Kung Fu Panda 3 saw the crew from the second film reunite, including director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, producer Melissa Cobb, screenplay writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, and Guillermo del Toro as executive producer.[20] Initially, Nelson was directing the film alone, but by February 2015, Alessandro Carloni had joined her as a co-director. According to the report, Carloni, who was an animation supervisor on the first film and a story artist on the second, joined Nelson following her request to strengthen "the director's bench" to ensure that the film is completed in a timely manner.[21]

On April 9, 2013, DreamWorks Animation announced that Rebel Wilson, Bryan Cranston, and Mads Mikkelsen had joined the cast of the film.[5] By April 2015, J.K. Simmons had replaced Mikkelsen, whose character had been rewritten.[22] Five months later, Wilson was replaced by Kate Hudson due to an extended production schedule.[10] The studio had to reanimate previously completed scenes to reflect Hudson's interpretation of the character.[10]

The film's antagonist, Kai, is the first supernatural villain of the Kung Fu Panda series.[23] Described by del Toro as "the most formidable villain yet,"[24] the creators wanted him to stand apart from his predecessors.[23] Nelson reasoned: "You can't go brawler because Tai Lung was brawler. You can't go smarter because Shen was smarter. Where can you go? You have to go supernatural, bigger, and even more intimidating."[23]

On July 25, 2014, it was announced that Hans Zimmer would return to score the film.[1] The score includes performances from renowned Asian musicians such as Chinese pianist Lang Lang, Chinese cellist Jian Wang, erhu musician Guo Gan, and Taiwanese pop singer Jay Chou and Canadian-Taiwanese young singer Patrick Brasca. The soundtrack album was released on January 22, 2016.[25] John Powell, who collaborated with Zimmer on the first two films, did not return for the third installment.

Kung Fu Panda 3 grossed $143.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $377.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $521.2 million, and is the lowest-grossing film in the series.[3] According to Deadline Hollywood, the film made a net profit of $76.65 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film, making it one of the top twenty most profitable release of 2016.[31]

In the United States and Canada, early tracking suggests the film would open to about $40–45 million from 3,955 theaters with Box Office Mojo reporting as high as $53 million opening, which is on par with Kung Fu Panda 2's $47.7 million opening in 2011 but much lower than the original film's $60.2 million opening in 2008.[28][32][33][30][34] However, DreamWorks Animation and Fox are being more conservative suggesting a "mid $40 million" opening.[32] Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyts at Rentrak said the film "should land somewhere between the first two installments" noting that after moviegoers – mostly from the East Coast – were affected by the 2016 United States blizzard, patrons, mostly families, would be on the look-out for entertainment movies which Kung Fu Panda 3 delivers.[33] On January 27, two days before the film's release, Fandango reported that Kung Fu Panda 3 was the top advance ticket seller for the weekend, outstripping previous DWA films Home as well as Kung Fu Panda 2 at the same point in their sale cycles.[28] Box office pundits also noted that the film didn't face any serious competition with its counterparts of newly released films such as The Finest Hours and Fifty Shades of Black, as well as holdovers The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as all are expected to gross around $10 million.[28] In North America, Kung Fu Panda 3 topped the box office in its debut weekend with $41.3 million, which made it the best opening weekend for animated film in January and the third highest weekend debut ever for the month.[35] It retained the No. 1 spot at North American box-office during its second weekend, by grossing $21.2 million.[36] In China, expectations were high for the film with Nancy Tartaglione of Deadline Hollywood reporting a bigger opening weekend than the U.S. and a bigger total gross. Conservative estimates for its China opening were at $35 million and rising to well upwards of $50 million.[29] Even before the film's official release in China, it was already projected to emerge as the highest-grossing animated film there, a record currently held by Monkey King: Hero Is Back ($153 million),[37] since it had the added benefit of opening a week before the Chinese New Year, as well as Valentine's Day and debuting amidst the school holidays, the Lunar New Year blackout period in which foreign films are banned from entering the state meaning lesser competition and longer legs, and since it has the special privilege to run throughout the period and is also not limited to running 30 days in theaters.[29][37]

The film was released in China on January 22, 2016 in a limited release, a week before its United States release. It had a 3-hour special sneak preview where it earned $6.4 million from two different versions of the film[38] topping the daily box office charts.[39] This broke the previous Saturday preview record held by Surprise: Journey to the West.[29] Buoyed by good word-of-mouth,[37] it had a single day opening of $16.3 million which is the biggest of 2016 thus far and uncluding previews from its Saturday showings earned a total of $23.1 million which is one of the biggest opening and single day gross in China.[40]

Kung Fu Panda 3 has received generally positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 87%, based on 176 reviews, with an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kung Fu Panda 3 boasts the requisite visual splendor, but like its rotund protagonist, this sequel's narrative is also surprisingly nimble, adding up to animated fun for the whole family".[41] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[42]

IGN gave the film score of 8.5 out of 10, saying, "Kung Fu Panda 3 offers a fun-filled, action-packed conclusion to DreamWorks' endearing animated series."[43] Screen Rant awarded it 2.5 out of 5, saying "At times, it's a beautiful movie, filled with likable characters, as well as digestible gags, that should keep kids smiling and giggling – but, with a plethora of more ambitious animated options out there, passable might not justify the money (or time) required for a viewing."[44] Glenn Kenny of RogerEbert.com awarded it 3 out of 4 stars, saying "In spite of its abundant action – and for all the interspecies mashups, this is as much an action-adventure animated movie as it is a funny-animal animated movie – [it] is a pretty relaxing experience for the adult viewer."[45] Entertainment Weekly awarded it a score of B, saying it was "Just complicated enough to reward steady viewers and just simple enough for parent escorts to enjoy without much prior knowledge."[46] The Hollywood Reporter awarded it a positive review, saying "While the storyline, in which Jack Black's dumpling-downing Dragon Warrior is reunited with his biological father, doesn't quite fulfill its prophecies, dramatically speaking, visually speaking it's all quite impressive — one of those very rare animated features that completely justifies its 3D glasses."[47] The Escapist awarded it 3 out of 5, saying "It's a perfectly fine film, and if all you want is "more of the same," it won't disappoint."[48] Forbes awarded it a mildly positive review, saying "While visually gorgeous and generally entertaining, this third installment of the DreamWorks Animation franchise is a comedown from the first two superb entries."[49] Variety also awarded it a positive review, saying "A winning lightness of touch prevails in this delightful continuation of the durable DreamWorks franchise."[50]