Kung Fu Panda 4 kicked through expectations this weekend with a terrific $58 million opening. It’s possible that could get even better once actuals come in tomorrow. This is a great start for the fourth entry in a series that began more than 15 years ago, and the best debut since the original feature’s $60 million take back in 2008 (and again, there’s a chance that Kung Fu Panda 4 could still surpass that). Franchise fatigue? What’s that? Simply put, Po is a beloved character at this point, and audiences love Jack Black in the role. Ska-doosh!

What gave Panda a boost? In case you haven’t noticed, there haven’t been any family-friendly movies since Migration (which is still in theaters, by the way, despite already being on disc) came out at Christmas. Dune: Part Two might be awesome, but it’s not exactly for the kiddos (as an aside, just how did that movie get away with a PG-13 anyway?). More importantly, Universal heavily marketed the fourthquel to adults. They had TV spots for it before and after the big game on Super Bowl Sunday. They featured it prominently during NBA games. Black did a comedic new cover of “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears. In other words, Po has been everywhere, and it seems to have paid off in a big way.

But wait, the good news doesn’t end there, as Dune: Part Two saw a fantastic hold, proving that it wasn’t a one weekend wonder (sorry, Anakin). Not that it really matters much, but it has already beaten the entire domestic gross of Dune: Part One, but that film came out as cinemas were still recovering from the pandemic and Warner Bros. was doing their controversial “let’s release movies on streaming the same day we put them in theaters” strategy. So far, Part Two has a great total of $157 million, so the fighters are in fact living long.

Our weekend’s other openers performed “fine” but not in a way that is going to blow anyone’s minds. Blumhouse’s evil teddy bear movie (yes, I just typed that) Imaginary is being reported at $10 million, which curiously enough matches its production budget. Huh. We’ve seen Blumhouse churn out sleeper hits before, but they’ve had a string of disappointments recently, including Night Swim and to a lesser extent Exorcist: Believer. Maybe Pixar would have better luck with the same concept if they ever gave Toy Story 3’s plush toy villain his own spin-off.

Next, we have Angel Studios’ Cabrina (forgive me, but that also sounds like it could be the name of a beer), a biopic about a nun from the people who brought you last year’s “sensation” Sound of Freedom. Believe it or not, Cabrina fared very well with critics, but this doesn’t have any topics that the far right can somehow shift into conspiracy theories like Freedom did. C’mon, faith-based audiences! Between this and Ordinary Angels, I’m disappointed in you for not showing up for these movies when they’re actually good. A weekend opening of just $7.5 million is rather unfortunate here.

Anyway, the top ten, via The Numbers (sorry, guys, but Deadline doesn’t have their report up yet as I type this)