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New York — The Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar! and the Jane Austen-monster mashup Pride and Prejudice and Zombies followed distantly behind Kung Fu Panda 3, which remained on top of the box office over Super Bowl weekend.
DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda sequel earned an estimated $21m in its second weekend of release, according to studio estimates Sunday. Joel and Ethan Coen's '50s Hollywood satire Hail, Caesar! opened in second place with an estimated $11.4m in North American theatres for Universal Pictures.
The two other major new releases struggled.
The Nicholas Sparks' romance The Choice debuted with $6.1m for Lionsgate. Despite expectations of a No. 2 opening, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, bankrolled by Cross Creek Picture and released by Sony's Screen Gems, eked out a meager $5.2m.
Though the majority of weekend grosses are made on Fridays and Saturdays, Hollywood generally seeks to avoid competing with the football broadcast and instead sticks largely to counterprogramming. The best Super Bowl weekend remains the 2008 concert film Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus ($31.1m) followed by an earlier Sparks adaption, 2010's Dear John ($30.5m).
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, called Super Bowl weekend a trade-off for studios that sacrifice a day of moviegoing for the promotional benefit of the game's mass audience. A number of movie previews were set to play during the broadcast.
"It's one of those weekends that Hollywood braces for but they know how to course correct before it happens," Dergarabedian said.
Playing in 2 232 theatres, Hail, Caesar! is one of the Coen brothers' more wide-opening movies, but it earned a dismal C-minus CinemaScore from audiences. Starring Josh Brolin as a studio fixer in the classic Hollywood era and featuring George Clooney and Channing Tatum as '50s stars, Hail, Caesar! is the Coens' most broad comedy since their 2008 Burn After Reading. That film opened with $19.1m.
Alejandro Inarritu's Oscar-nominated The Revenant continues to roll. Its global total is up to $325m, and The Revenant led overseas business with $24m internationally over the weekend. On Saturday, Inarritu also won best director from the Directors Guild Awards.
