Marvel’s ‘Shang-Chi’ Breaks Labor Day Weekend Records With $94 Million Haul
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Marvel Studio’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings starring Simu Liu crushed the competition.
Deadline: With Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings on the marquee, audiences didn’t take a holiday from the movies. As expected, the Destin Daniel Cretton-directed Marvel Cinematic Universe title came in much higher than what Disney was spotting, earning $19.2M yesterday.
That’s hands down the best Monday ever for a film during the pandemic, and the 27th biggest Monday of all-time, ahead of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ($19.1M) and 2012’s Avengers ($18.89M) and behind The Dark Knight Rises ($19.4M).
All of this adds up to a revised 4-day of $94.67M. Shang-Chi should also own the No. 1 spot in its second weekend, estimated to be -60%, with around $30M, ahead of Warner Bros-HBO Max’s James Wan horror film Malignant which is expected to be in the single digits.
#ShangChi had an even bigger debut than expected, collecting $90 million in its first four days of release and setting a new high watermark for the holiday weekend https://t.co/tFeKpQWeSm pic.twitter.com/Lm6Ivw5zMq
— Variety (@Variety) September 6, 2021
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Variety: Black Widow showed what a Marvel movie can do in pandemic conditions, and that release had the additional burden of a streaming option,” says David A. Gross. “For Marvel, Shang-Chi is a creative departure, and at a cost of over $150 million, the results are very good.”Unlike Black Widow, which debuted simultaneously on Disney Plus, Shang-Chi is playing only in theaters for its first 45 days of release before it lands on-demand. Disney CEO Bob Chapek called its theatrical-only release an “interesting experiment” and indicated its ticket sales would influence plans for future releases, such as Eternals, which is scheduled for Nov. 5.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Shang-Chi takes place after the events of Avengers: Endgame and centers on a skilled martial artist who is forced to confront his past when he is targeted by the covert Ten Rings organization. In a landmark moment for representation, it’s the first installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the biggest film franchise, to feature an Asian star and predominately Asian cast.
Moviegoers and critics were impressed with the final product; it has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes and an “A” CinemaScore from audiences.
