Feb 12, 2024

China's animated hit "Boony Bears" grosses $61 million at the opening box office

Boonie Bears Time Twist, the new Chinese film and TV blockbuster "Boonie Bears" released during the Chinese New Year holiday, grossed US$60.8 million at the box office (according to Comscore; Deadline and others report an even higher US$61.6 million).

This ranks it third overall at the global box office, a tremendous feat considering that "Boony Bears" was released in only one country. Put another way, the weekend box office total for all films in the U.S. last weekend was approximately $40 million.

"Boony Bears" is one of the most profitable animated franchises of all time. The ten films released in the past decade alone have grossed over $885 million at the theatrical box office and have been shown in many countries, the majority of which are from China; according to Deadline, this latest film is expected to gross approximately $320 million, making "Boony Bears" would be a billion-dollar theatrical franchise.

Chinese New Year has proven to be a massive one for Chinese cinema in general.

Universal's Migration was the only animated film to make the weekend's global top 10, grossing $9.7 million from 80 territories. The Illumination-produced film has now grossed $235.2 million worldwide, with $101.1 million of that coming from the United States.

Disney released Turning Red, the second Pixar film of the Covid era, over the weekend, and it did only slightly better than Soul, which opened in January; Turning Red grossed $535,000 in 1,560 theaters, for a $342 per theater average. Soul, which opened over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, grossed $431,840 from 1,350 theaters in its first three days.

"Luka" will be the third Pixar film of the year to open in theaters on March 22. It will go head-to-head with the third weekend of Universal DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda 4,