I haven’t always been the biggest fan of superhero movies, but you can’t deny the fact that they bring people to the cinema. Marvel might be the thing that helps theaters survive this last wave of the pandemic.
The studio’s latest release, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, had a theatrical-only release this past weekend, and it did some pretty insane numbers.
It made $94 million in its first four days of release setting a new high mark for the Labor Day weekend. The previous record for the holiday weekend was just a little over $30 million for the 2007 version of Halloween.
Shang-Chi’s three-day total was $75.5 million, which means it was the second-biggest traditional opening weekend of the pandemic, behind Black Widow’s $80 million debut.
At the international box office, ‘Shang-Chi’ amassed $56.2 million in key markets such as France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan. The film doesn’t have a release date in China, which is an important territory for Marvel movies. Globally, ‘Shang-Chi’ has made $146.2 million so far.
This is outstanding news. As we reported last week, predictions had Shang-Chi closer to the $50 million mark. I even questioned whether it’d hit $45 million.
So yeah, this is very good news for theaters because it might just convince big studios that a theatrical-only release is the way to go, as opposed to the hybrid streaming release strategy.
Last weekend’s champ, Universal’s thriller ‘Candyman,’ slid to second place, collecting $10.5 million over the weekend and an impressive $13 million through Monday. The horror film, which is playing only in theaters, has made $41 million to date, a strong result given its $25 million production budget.
