LOS ANGELES — “Kung Fu Panda 3” kicked its way to the top of the North American box office with a respectable $41 million, according to Rentrak estimates Sunday.

The DreamWorks Animation film cost a reported $145 million to make and earned a strong “A” CinemaScore from audiences, 70 percent of whom were families.

Po, left, voiced by Jack Black, and his panda father Li, voiced by Bryan Cranston, in a scene from “Kung Fu Panda 3.” DreamWorks Animation via AP

“It’s a bold move to take a franchise which has had great success in that summer corridor and move it into late January, which is generally considered a very slow time,” said Rentrak senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “It also filled a huge void in the marketplace.”

The first film opened to $60.2 million in 2008 and the second to $47.7 million in 2011.

For distributor 20th Century Fox, switching up the release was a no-brainer after seeing the successes of “The Lego Movie” and last year’s “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” in this time frame.

“We know that when the market conditions are right, this business really is a 365-day-a-year business,” said Chris Aronson, Fox’s domestic distribution chief. “We saw an opportunity and we grabbed it. We’re thrilled with the results.”

The animated Panda sequel fared much better than the weekend’s other new openers, such as Disney’s Coast Guard adventure “The Finest Hours,” which debuted in fourth place with $10.3 million. Based on a real-life 1952 rescue mission, the film stars Chris Pine, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster and cost around $80 million to make.

Strong holdovers “The Revenant” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” took second and third place with $12.4 million and $10.8 million, respectively.

– The Associated Press

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