Kung Fu Box Office

I've watched the Kung Fu Panda 3 story crew, headed up by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, ramp up on the third installment on the upper floors of the Riverside Building for awhile now. KFP 3 is the DreamWorks' pioneer effort in Chinese co-production, and the L.A. Times is taking note:

... The creation of Oriental DreamWorks has already resulted in preferential treatment for "Kung Fu Panda 3" in China. The movie's recent designation as co-production will allow the company to receive a larger share of revenue than foreign studios typically receive when their films are allowed into China under its quota system.

And the movie has secured a choice release date over the Chinese New Year holiday, a period typically reserved for domestic productions.

The movie is breaking new ground by having two versions, in which characters are animated so that their speech is in sync with both English and Mandarin. To create the Mandarin-language version will take about 25% more time and effort, adding to the budget of the film that's estimated near $140 million. ...

If the Panda's latest sequel weighs in at $140 million, that would be a $10 million drop from the second installment's purported outlay. But it seems clear that doing production work for Kung Fu Panda 3 -- and a second iteration of the movie in Mandarin at the Shanghai studio isn't saving buckets of money. Still in all, if having two versions KFP 3 makes it a box office winner in the Middle Kingdom, everything's good.

Meanwhile, DWA's Glendale campus has had other feature projects in development for Shanghai. At least one that I know about (beyond the boo adaptation mentioned in the article) has been dropped, but Glendale will supply its Chinese counterpart with more content down the road. The mainland's market is big and growing, and Jeffrey and Co. want to be sure they're participants.

Add On: DWA builds a new facility in Shanghai:

... Construction on an eye-catching new headquarters for the studio's Chinese joint venture, Oriental DreamWorks, is moving full speed ahead.

The 13-level tower — designed by New York firm KPF and linked to a large X-shaped IMAX cinema complex via a pathway envisioned as an extended red carpet — is literally at the center of a $2.4-billion entertainment, culture, retail and creative-office development called Shanghai DreamCenter.

Scheduled to open in late 2017, the waterfront complex situated on a choice parcel south of the city's historic Bund district reflects a concerted desire by Chinese government officials to encourage the development of what they call "cultural industries." ....