Box office: Two big blockbusters share the top ten with three (count 'em!) "faith-based" films

Among other things, Kung Fu Panda 4 and Dune: Part Two grossed over $40 million each – the first time two films have done so well at the same time since Barbenheimer.

Po (voice of Jack Black) and Zhen (Awkwafina) in Kung Fu Panda 4.

Yeah, this week’s box-office update is a little late.

There are two basic reasons for this: One, the Oscars kept me busy on Sunday afternoon and evening, which is when I usually do the bulk of my work on these posts; and two, the websites I rely on for my info were all missing a key bit of data—specifically, a complete weekend estimate for The Chosen’s latest installment.

So I figured I’d just have to do this week’s update one day later than usual. And now, here we are.

The big news this week is that, after two months or more of mostly slim pickings, we now have not one but two big blockbuster hits at the box office:

• Kung Fu Panda 4 exceeded expectations by grossing almost $58 million in its first weekend, which was the biggest opening of any DreamWorks cartoon in a dozen years, and the 4th-biggest opening of any animated film this decade.

• Meanwhile, Dune: Part Two grossed $46.2 million in its second weekend, which represented a drop of only 44% from its $82.5 million debut last week.

Thanks to these films, this weekend marked the first time two films grossed over $40 million simultaneously since the second week of ‘Barbenheimer’ back in July.

There were other interesting patterns this week too, most notably the presence of no fewer than three “faith-based” films in the top ten:

• Cabrini, about an Italian nun who became the first American to be canonized by the Catholic church, grossed almost $7.2 million in its first weekend. That was the 2nd-best opening to date for Angel Studios, behind last summer’s surprise hit Sound of Freedom. (The two films share a director, Alejandro Monteverde.)

• Ordinary Angels, produced by Kingdom Story Company (Jesus Revolution), grossed almost $2 million in its third weekend, raising its total to $16.1 million.

• And The Chosen Season 4: Episodes 7-8 added another $744,774 to its coffers and raised its total to $6.6 million. Together with Episodes 1-3 and Episodes 4-6, The Chosen’s fourth season has grossed over $29 million these past six weeks.

Sunday, incidentally, was supposed to be The Chosen’s last day in theatres. After this, the show’s fans were expecting to learn when the fourth season would start streaming. But on Sunday morning, series creator Dallas Jenkins posted a video to YouTube in which he said some “legal matters” were holding up the season’s streaming release—so for now, Episodes 7-8 will stay in theatres (Fathom Events is currently selling tickets for screenings as far into the future as March 27), and churches will be able to host “free promotional screenings” of the show’s fourth season starting tomorrow.

Incidentally, in the video, Jenkins talks about how a lot of The Chosen’s grosses have stayed with the theatres or gone to the show’s distributor, Fathom Events, and he also mentions the box-office success of Sound of Freedom last year. As it happens, Angel Studios—the company that released Sound of Freedom and was very involved in The Chosen’s first three seasons—gave Deadline a breakdown of Sound of Freedom’s financial stats last week, and the long and the short of it seems to be that that film grossed $249.5 million worldwide and Angel got to keep only $17.8 million, or 7% of the total, after withholding taxes and paying the promotional costs, etc., etc.

So, make of that whatever you will. (The film will, of course, continue to make money through other revenue streams, such as streaming licenses, DVD sales, etc.)

And now, a few more stats and facts re: this week’s top ten, title by title: