"Kung Fu Panda 3" is Dreamworks's ticket to box office hit in its apparent company restructuring and change of plans. Because of this, it might have sacrificed the movie's integrity, having the release date being pushed back around to prevent market competition from other movies releasing on the same week - twice.
The movie starring Jack Black was originally dated to come out on theaters March 18, 2016 but was rescheduled to December 23, 2015 to avoid bumping with the release of "Star Wars: Force Awakens" on March 25, 2016.
It was going well until "Star Wars" also decided to move back in fear of competition with "Captain America: Civil War."
Dreamworks Animations then decided that it was safe to move back to its March target release only to realize later on that "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" was also due to hit cinemas on March 2016. Concerned that this may affect sales of "Kung Fu Panda 3", they finally relocated to January 29, 2016.
At this rate, the adorable Panda movie will have to bow to every slightly larger film and find another place to settle in, but the distributing company will defend this in the business standpoint. Besides, Dreamworks is being careful with releasing animation movies more than ever as it lost a lot of amount from the "Rise of the Guardians, "Turbo", and "Mr. Peabody &Sherman" which didn't do well in the box office to retrieve their budget of $153 million.
The company also announced that they faced a tough decision to release only two movies per year as part of their restructuring plan - including having to lay off 500 employees.
Amidst losses, CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg maintains optimism saying, "The number one priority for DreamWorks Animation's core film business is to deliver consistent creative and financial success. I am confident that this strategic plan will deliver great films, better box office results, and growing profitability across our complementary businesses."
The "Kung Fu Panda" franchise is one of the movies that the company had breathed a little relief to as its first franchise made hits in the global theaters earning $60 million in the opening and the part two debuted at $48 million.
Maneuvering "Kung Fu Panda 3" to a release date with as few competitions as possible even though January is usually an off-peak season, Dreamworks is confident that with its predecessors' success in the box office, the movie will help the company to financially pave the way to release its fellow animated movies in the closet.
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