There goes Marvel having another good weekend at the box office.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings debuted with $71.4 million over Labor Day weekend. The film is on pace to make $83.5 million over the four-day holiday weekend.
Shang-Chi blew away expectations as many thought its 45-day exclusive theatrical release and no Disney+ option would give the film bad results. That’s not the case. As many still cite the Delta variant as a concern, Shang-Chi’s results should be a positive sign that films won’t be delayed this fall/winter despite all the concern.
Shang-Chi’s haul is the second-best of the pandemic era putting it right behind Black Widow. Shang-Chi smashed a Labor Day weekend record that was previously held by 2007’s Halloween.
Shang-Chi has made $127.6 million globally after opening in key markets such as France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Brazil and Mexico
Disney still hasn’t given official confirmation if Eternals will be theatrical exclusive. We will have to see how Shang-Chi holds up in the next two weekends but hopefully Eternals will remain a theatrical only release. The Eternals cast is huge and there’s a good chance if it was changed to a day-and-date release with Disney+ Premier Access it would lead to more lawsuits. I don’t think Chapek and Co. want to deal with that again. Also, it’s not in Disney’s best interest to upset Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao or one of their most valuable employees in Kevin Feige.
Marvel’s first Asian-led superhero film, Shang-Chi stars Simu Liu as the titular character, as he is dragged back into the crosshairs of his father’s criminal organization The Ten Rings. The film also stars Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung, Benedict Wong, and Meng’er Zhang. The film was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Cretton, Dave Callaham, and Andrew Lanham.
Shang-Chi is currently in theaters.
Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
