Sunday, January 24, 2016

Covering Bets

The Reporter tells us:

... The third film in the Kung Fu Panda franchise [is] set for a day-and-date China release Jan. 29. ...

Central to KFP3's fortunes in China is an ambitious two-version production and release plan. The movie ... was created in English- and Mandarin-language versions, but ... the KFP3 characters' mouths and body language were animated twice to match the nuances of both languages.

"You'll have to see it twice to compare the differences between the English and Chinese versions," DWA CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told an industry crowd Dec. 12 in the city of Sanya. "But twice is not enough," he added to laughter from several hundred Chinese cinema chain managers at the event. "You'll actually have to see it a third time to decide which is your favorite." ...

The third Panda has gotten generally favorable reviews, and box office projections are north of $700 million. Disney's talking animal picture Zootopia doesn't roll out until March, so DWA has plenty of time to collect an abundance of coin with KFP3.

(It's a relatively safe bet that Trolls, the DreamWorks' feature released in November, will gross a wee bit less than the third Panda. Then again, perhaps Trolls will be some kind of amazing, sleeper hit.)

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