Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Panda Offshore

We all know that KFP walloped the competition stateside, but how did it do far away from the fruited plain?.

Par kicked up a socko offshore launch for "Kung Fu Panda" with $20.7 million at 1,398 -- a sterling $14,807 per location -- in only nine markets with each posting the top result for a DreamWorks animated pic. The booming Russian market led the way with $9.2 million, 158% better than "Ratatouille," followed by $7.5 million in South Korea, more than triple "Ratatouille."

"Panda" also set records in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines for the best three-day animated launch ever, underlining the strong offshore appeal of CGI animated titles. Par's holding back the pic in Western Europe until July to take advantage of holidays and the start of vacations ...

Par isn't stupid. It knows a big moneymaker when it sees one.

Jeffrey and his partners have themselves another franchise, which is fine by me. Movies that inspire sequels also inspire lots of work for animation artists.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm thrilled to read about "Panda"'s success. It is a good solid film with some astonishing work in it. I wonder, though, if Nick is going to follow through on the "Panda" tv cartoon. I mean, wouldn't Nick rather keep "Panda" as a film franchise?

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't NICK rather keep it? Don't you mean-wouldn't DREAMWORKS rather?

Anonymous said...

A film franchise and a TV series aren't mutually exclusive. DW/Nick are already doing it with Madagascar, and Pixar/Disney did it with Toy Story. Fox is doing it with The Simpsons. There are probably other examples I'm not thinking of right now.

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