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PEOPLE & ARTSTuesday 9 February 2016
‘Kung Fu Panda 3’
tops Super Bowl
weekend at box office
JAKE COYLE the box office over Super
AP Film Writer Bowl weekend.
NEW YORK (AP) — The DreamWorks Animation’s
Coen brothers’ “Hail, Cae- “Kung Fu Panda” sequel
sar!” and the Jane Austen- earned an estimated $21
monster mashup “Pride million in its second week-
and Prejudice and Zom- end of release, according
bies” followed distantly be- to studio estimates Sunday.
hind “Kung Fu Panda 3,” Joel and Ethan Coen’s
which remained on top of ‘50s Hollywood satire “Hail,
This image released by DreamWorks Animation shows characters Po, voiced by Jack Black, left,
and his long-lost panda father Li, voiced by Bryan Cranston, in a scene from “Kung Fu Panda 3.”
Associated Press
Caesar!” opened in sec- and Miley Cyrus” ($31.1 classic Hollywood era and
ond place with an estimat- million) followed by an ear- featuring George Clooney
ed $11.4 million in North lier Sparks adaption, 2010’s and Channing Tatum as
American theaters for Uni- “Dear John” ($30.5 million). ‘50s stars, “Hail, Caesar!”
versal Pictures. Paul Dergarabedian, se- is the Coens’ most broad
The two other major new nior media analyst for comedy since their 2008
releases struggled. comScore, called Super “Burn After Reading.” That
The Nicholas Sparks’ ro- Bowl weekend a trade-off film opened with $19.1 mil-
mance “The Choice” de- for studios that sacrifice a lion.
buted with $6.1 million for day of moviegoing for the Alejandro Inarritu’s Oscar-
Lionsgate. Despite expec- promotional benefit of the nominated “The Revenant”
tations of a No. 2 opening, game’s mass audience. A continues to roll. Its global
“Pride and Prejudice and number of movie previews total is up to $325 million,
Zombies,” bankrolled by were set to play during the and “The Revenant” led
Cross Creek Picture and broadcast. overseas business with $24
released by Sony’s Screen “It’s one of those week- million internationally over
Gems, eked out a meager ends that Hollywood brac- the weekend. On Satur-
$5.2 million. es for but they know how day, Inarritu also won best
Though the major- to course correct before it director from the Directors
ity of weekend grosses are happens,” Dergarabedian Guild Awards.
made on Fridays and Satur- said. In its eight week of release,
days, Hollywood generally Playing in 2,232 theaters, Walt Disney Co.’s “Star
seeks to avoid competing “Hail, Caesar!” is one of Wars: The Force Awakens”
with the football broadcast the Coen brothers’ more celebrated a pair of mile-
and instead sticks largely wide-opening movies, but stones over the weekend.
to counterprogramming. it earned a dismal C-minus It surpassed $900 million at
The best Super Bowl week- CinemaScore from audi- the North American box of-
end remains the 2008 con- ences. Starring Josh Bro- fice and crossed $2 billion
cert film “Hannah Montana lin as a studio fixer in the globally.q
Super Bowl gets 111.9 million viewers,
down from last year
BY DAVID BAUDER wire contest between New quee quarterback match-
AP TELEVISION WRITER England and Seattle keeps up between Peyton Man-
NEW YORK (AP) -- Setting the record with 114.4 mil- ning and reigning NFL MVP
television viewership re- lion viewers. The Super Bowl Cam Newton.
cords with the Super Bowl had seemed to know no Even more than television,
has become almost rou- ceiling in popularity, setting social media reflected far
tine, but this year’s aver- viewership records in six of less engagement in the
age of 111.9 million viewers seven years until this one. game than there was last
for Denver’s victory over CBS, the nation’s most- year, when the result was
Carolina is down from the watched network, had decided on a last-minute,
past two years. pushed the event hard the goal-line interception.
That makes Sunday’s game past few months, playing Twitter said that there were
the third most-watched up the historical nature of 16.9 million tweets about
event in U.S. television his- the 50th Super Bowl game. the game, sharply down
tory, the Nielsen company But Denver’s 24-10 victory from last year’s 25.1 million.
said Monday. wasn’t a sizzler, with de- q
Last year’s down-to-the- fenses dominating the mar-
