Karate Kid: Legends has pᴀssed a majorly important box office milestone. The new movie, which is the sixth feature-length installment in the franchise, sees original protagonist Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) returning to team up with the 2010 reboot’s mentor Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) to train new student Li Fong (Ben Wang), who recently moved to New York City from Beijing. Karate Kid: Legends reviews have been middling, earning it a 59% Rotten Tomatoes score that marks it as the third best-reviewed of the six movies.
Per ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, as of Sunday morning, Karate Kid: Legends is projected to close out its domestic opening weekend by hitting a cumulative worldwide box office gross of $47 million, having opened previously in some international territories. This makes it the 23rd movie of 2025 to pᴀss the $45 million milestone. This milestone is especially significant because the movie’s reported budget is $45 million (making it the most expensive installment, exceeding the 2010 reboot’s reported budget by $5 million), meaning that it has taken a very short time for it to earn that money back.
What This Means For Karate Kid: Legends
It Will Probably Turn A Profit
The fact that the Karate Kid: Legends release has already made the movie’s budget back does not mean that it is turning a profit just yet. Because movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their budgets in theaters, this means that its estimated break-even point is most likely somewhere around $112.5 million. However, precedent shows that it could potentially reach that mark. Below, see a breakdown of how every installment in the franchise has performed at the box office:
|
тιтle |
Opening Weekend |
Worldwide Box Office |
|---|---|---|
|
The Karate Kid (1984) |
$5 million |
$90.8 million |
|
The Karate Kid Part II (1986) |
$12.6 million |
$115.1 million |
|
The Karate Kid Part III (1989) |
$10.4 million |
$38.8 million |
|
The Next Karate Kid (1994) |
– |
$15.8 million |
|
The Karate Kid (2010) |
$55.7 million |
$351.8 million |
|
Karate Kid: Legends (2025) |
$21 million |
TBD |
The fact that it has already made its budget back after just three days in domestic theaters most likely means that Legends will perform well, even though it is more expensive than the other Karate Kid movies. If it behaves anything like Part II (which is the highest-grossing of the original movies) or the 2010 installment (which is the highest-grossing overall, it could potentially gross $132.3 million or more by the end of its run. While this may not be enough for it to be considered a hit, it could very well turn a tidy profit.
Our Take On The Karate Kid: Legends Milestone
Cobra Kai May Or May Not Have Helped Its Box Office
It may be surprising that Karate Kid: Legends is not performing better, given the fact that Daniel LaRusso was just one of the lead characters in the popular Karate Kid sequel series Cobra Kai, which recently aired its series finale on Netflix in February. However, while the series’ strong viewership did not necessarily translate into a huge rush at the box office, perhaps because audiences are now used to watching the franchise at home, it does seem to helped the movie enough for it to end up on track to become the highest-performing installment featuring Macchio.
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Source: ᴅᴇᴀᴅline
