Kung Fu Panda 4, the latest adventure for DreamWorks Animation’s voracious hero Po, has reached $503.5 million at the global box office ($318.5M from international markets). BoxOfficeMojo pegs the Universal Pictures release as the third-highest-grossing 2024 movie worldwide, behind Dune: Part Two ($704.2M) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire ($519.4M). KFP4 has a healthy lead over the next animated entry, Haikyuu!! The Dumpster Battle (No. 12 at $64K), which is gearing up for a NorAm theatrical release through Crunchyroll/Sony on May 31.
Kung Fu Panda 4 is only the fourth animated feature to surpass half a billion in global box office since 2020, joining the ranks of The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($1.4B, Illumination/Nintendo/Universal, 2023), Minions: The Rise of Gru ($943M, Illumination/Universal, 2022) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ($690.9M, SPA/Marvel/Sony, 2023).
The weekend added $11.7M (-31%) to the KFP4 coffers from 82 markets. The sequel’s top performing markets to date are China ($125.9M), Mexico ($32.1M), U.K. ($16.9M), India ($14.6M) and Australia ($11.7); it is now the highest-grossing Kung Fu Panda film in 37 overseas markets, including Mexico. The latest entry notches up the franchise total to $2 billion+ globally, the seventh highest-grossing animated film series of all time, joining other DreamWorks faves Shrek ($3.97B) and Madagascar ($2.26B).
So far this year, Kung Fu Panda 4 hasn’t had any major studio, family-targeted animation competition in theaters. Next month will see the release of John Krasinski’s hybrid imaginary friends tale IF (May 17, Paramount) and fully-animated The Garfield Movie (May 24, Sony Pictures) before the summer’s big sequels Inside Out 2 (June 14, Pixar) and Despicable Me 4 (July 3, Illumination) are sure to bring established fans and kids on summer break back to the movies.
[Sources: Deadline, BoxOfficeMojo]
