Kung Fu Panda 4 Box Office Passes Major Domestic Milestone

Kung Fu Panda 4 has passed a major milestone at the domestic box office. The movie is the fourth theatrical installment in the franchise, which also includes three animated shows, following the continued adventures of the titular anthropomorphic panda Po (Jack Black). It debuted with the second-best opening weekend of the entire franchise, besting the second weekend of Dune: Part Two to take No. 1 at the box office with a $57.9 million opening.

Per Variety, the Kung Fu Panda 4 box office is projected to gross a 3-day total of$31.5 million in domestic theaters by the end of its second weekend. In addition to making the movie No. 1 for the second weekend in a row, this pushes its cumulative domestic total past the $100 million milestone. It will be the second 2024 release to pass that benchmark at the domestic box office, after Dune: Part Two, which recently surpassed $200 million in domestic theaters.

Becoming the first animated movie to accomplish this milestone for the year is no small achievement, even in a year that has a generally thin movie slate after many titles were pushed back to 2025 amid the 2023 writers and actors strikes. In fact, it has made the race past this benchmark quicker than all but two of the highest-grossing animated movies of the previous year. Below, see how the timeline for the Kung Fu Panda 4 release passing the $100 million milestone compares to the five highest-grossing animated movies of 2023.

The movie comes with an estimated budget of $85 million, which means that its break-even point is likely somewhere north of $170 million. If it continues growing in proportion to the precedent set by those 2023 releases, it seems possible that it could earn between $500 and $600 million by the end of its worldwide theatrical run, landing well past that goal. This would compare favorably to the previous Kung Fu Panda movies, which had worldwide grosses ranging between $521.1 million and $665.7 million.

It also remains to be seen if Kung Fu Panda 4 ends up being the highest-grossing animated movie of the year. This does not seem likely, as July sees the release of Despicable Me 4, the next installment in the massive blockbuster franchise that introduced the Minions. However, its week 2 domestic gross is a very good result nonetheless, especially considering how slow the box office has been throughout early 2024.