Following its Friday opening, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is expected to dominate the Labor Day weekend box office.
Marvel Studios' Shang-Chi, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, pulled $29.6 million domestically in Friday night ticket sales from 4,300 theaters, as reported by Variety. Based on its premiere, this Marvel Cinematic Universe film is expected to earn between $75-80 million in its four-day opening weekend, which would break the all-time Labor Day weekend box office record previously held by 2007's Halloween, which earned $30.6 million when it premiered in theaters.
Despite record-breaking predictions, the film's three-day gross is projected to be $70.8 million, which would bring it sightly below Marvel's Black Widow, which debuted at $80 million over three days and $60 million on Disney+ Premier Access. On top of that, Shang-Chi managed to pull in an impressive $8 million in its Thursday night previews, the second-highest preview earnings since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic after Black Widow, which earned $13.2 million in previews. However, unlike the previous Marvel film starring Scarlett Johansson, Shang-Chi will only be available in theaters for 45 days.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek confirmed in May 2021 that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings would skip a Disney+ release entirely and play exclusively in theaters for 45 days, as opposed to the traditional 90-day time frame, before moving on to streaming and PVOD.
Chapek also stated that Shang-Chi's exclusive theatrical release would be "an interesting experiment," and that Disney and Marvel will consider how the film performs only in theaters and use that to inform its release decisions for future projects. In fact, it was recently reported that the release date for Marvel's Eternals, which is currently set for an exclusive theatrical release in November, would depend on Shang-Chi's performance at the box office.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings arrived exclusively in theaters on Sept. 3 and is the second film in the MCU's Phase 4, the first being Black Widow, which had a dual release in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access. Despite a successful opening weekend, Black Widow experienced a significant drop at the box office in its second weekend. It was later reported that Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against Disney, alleging that the film's dual release directly breached her contract. The lawsuit states that Disney guaranteed an exclusive theatrical release for Johansson's ninth and final Marvel film and that part of her payment would be based on the film's box office performance, which was diminished due to its Disney+ release.
Starring Simu Liu as the titular hero, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is currently available exclusively in theaters.
Source: Variety
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