Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is off to a strong and impressive start at the box office, netting $8.8 million in Thursday preview showings domestically. This is a promising beginning for the extended weekend, where the latest Marvel offering will hope to gather around $50 million by the end of the four-day Labor Day weekend. This places Shang-Chi in second place for Thursday night previews this year, falling only behind Marvel's previous film, Black Widow ($13.2 million), and positioning it ahead of films like F9 ($7.1 million) and A Quiet Place Part II ($4.8 million).
Analysts have predicted that Shang-Chi could earn anywhere from $45-$50 million over the extended weekend, though these preview numbers do offer the possibility for the superhero flick to exceed those expectations. Even amidst an ongoing pandemic and a raging delta variant, audiences are still eager for superhero content, especially from Marvel Studios. Like 20th Century Studios' film Free Guy, Shang-Chi is unique in that it does not have a digital component to its release, which would have come in the form of Disney+'s Premier Access. This gives the film a unique advantage over Black Widow, for which many viewers decided to catch at home on the streaming service (though it should be noted the difference from July to now is vast, pandemic-wise). Shang-Chi will have this exclusive window for 45 days before being available to watch at home.
Labor Day weekend has historically not been a huge weekend for box office draw, and COVID complications are undoubtedly what caused Marvel to drop one of their films in this spot. Halloween (2007) currently holds the largest opening weekend for this timeframe with $30.5 million. Therefore it seems rather foregone that Shang-Chi will have seized this record by Monday given the box office predictions. Perhaps Marvel will have successfully staked another claim to the release year calendar, just as they upended the start of the summer box office to late April with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Just as Black Panther did for its respective audience, Shang-Chi shows Marvel taking great strides with regards to representation, offering the long-overdue spotlight to Asian audiences. Asian-American filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton is behind the lens and screenplay, with the cast being led by some of the biggest names in Asian cinema, such as Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, and Fala Chen. Newcomer Simu Liu (Kim's Convenience) portrays the title character. The film shows Shang-Chi (Liu) forced to confront his past and upbringing, made difficult and complicated by his father, Wenwu/The Mandarian (Leung), the leader of the villainous Ten Rings organization.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now in theaters.
from Collider - Feed https://ift.tt/2WRoa76
via IFTTT
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment