While it was no match for Vin Diesel and “The Fate of the Furious,” or even an animated baby and nonanimated “Beauty and the Beast,” Disneynature’s latest documentary “Born in China” topped all newcomers over the Earth Day weekend box office.
When actual numbers were released Tuesday, the film took in a little less than $4.8 million, which was less than two other holdover films “Going in Style” and “Smurfs: The Lost Village.” It still was the top-grossing new film of the weekend and its take was the best for DisneyNature in five years, topping 2014’s “Bears” and 2015’s “Monkey Kingdom.” 2012’s “Chimpanzees” is the last Disneynature film to have a better opening weekend.
The film also took in another $9.4 million in foreign markets.
The film narrated by Jon Krasinski tells the the story of three animal families — pandas, snow leopards, and golden snub-nosed monkeys — living in China. Playing in 1,508 U.S. theaters, it received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences and 81 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
No. 1 was Universal’s “The Fate of the Furious” taking in $38.4 million in its second weekend, Fox’s “Boss Baby” with $12.7 in its fourth week and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” with $9.6 million, and now a six-week domestic total of $470.7 million.
Disneynature’s top debut ever was 2012’s “Chimpanzee” that took in $10.6 million followed by 2009’s “Earth” with $8.8 million. 2010’s Oceans and 2011’s “African Cats” both had more than $6 million on its opening weekend. “Earth” remains the top-grossing film from the studio with a total take of $32 million.
Disneynature plans to release “Dolphins” for Earth Day 2018. The studio did not have a film in 2016.
rtribou@orlandosentinel.com, 407-420-5134
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