Marvel Studios Shang-Chi and The Legends of The Ten Rings is on pace to potentially double early opening weekend box office predictions, destroying the previous Labor Day record along the way. Good word of mouth and return viewers have pushed the predictions, which were originally set around $45M range, to an expected $85M or more for the long 4-day weekend. The film has already surpassed the opening weekend take for The Suicide Squad and now has Black Widow in its sights.
Shang-Chi took in a combined $29.6M between Thursday night previews and Friday’s full day. With it being a holiday weekend in the U.S., even one where audiences traditionally don’t flock to theaters, the buzz around the film could lead to some pretty impressive numbers Saturday and, especially, Sunday, given that people don’t have to head back to work on Monday.
The origin story has been equally popular with fans and critics, holding at 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a 98% audience score. That score lines up nicely with the the A grade from Cinemascore. All this comes at a time when studios are divided between exclusive theatrical and hybrid releases. Shang-Chi’s success (it’s still possible it could beat pandemic box office champ F9’s opening take) will be a significant data point in the discussion about how to proceed for the remainder of 2021 and early 2022 as the Delta variant surges around world will impact theaters.
Source: THR
