Marvel, the Walt Disney Company, and theater chains are having a great Labor Day weekend, thanks primarily to the overwhelming success of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. With a domestic 4-day haul of $83.5 million (according to Deadline), the Simu Liu and Awkwafina-led fantasy-adventure picture gave a roundhouse kick to all previous record holders for the end-of-summer holiday weekend. (Until now, nothing had topped 1999’s The Sixth Sense week 5 at $35.6 million; the number two slot was the opening weekend of 2007’s Halloween at $30.6, according to The Numbers.)
The victory may very well be a bellwether for the health of theatrically-distributed four-quadrant films as the industry continues to puzzle over when new titles should go to streaming services. Shang-Chi was the first major Disney-distributed movie to decline the Premiere Access program on Disney+ since it was initiated in September with Mulan. (The rest of the slate included Raya and the Last Dragon, Cruella, Black Widow, and Jungle Cruise). For $30, households that already had a monthly subscription to Disney+ could watch the new movies on an à la carte basis as many times as they wished (and with kid-friendly pics, this is a notable factor) before they joined the rest of the D+ library roughly three months later. (The Disney distributed Free Guy, produced by 20th Century Films, was not able to take part on Premier Access due to previously set deals with HBO.)
While Shang-Chi’s three-day box domestic box office at $71.4 million does put it behind Black Widow’s $80.3 million, one should consider that qualms about the delta variant of the coronavirus were far lower when the Scarlett Johansson movie debuted. (The film was released on July 9; NBC News published a “what is this new ‘delta variant’ thing I’m hearing about?” article on July 2.) Disney’s decision to offer Black Widow on streaming is at the heart of Johansson’s current lawsuit against Disney.
The impressive showing at theaters may very well have Warner Bros., who recently took a bath on The Suicide Squad and Reminiscence, wondering if they made the right decision to push their entire 2021 slate to a simultaneous theaters-and-HBO Max release schedule. Two highly anticipated (and very expensive) pictures, Dune and The Matrix Resurrections, have respective released dates of October 22 and December 22.
Interestingly enough, Shang-Chi, which features an almost exclusively Asian, Asian-American, and Asian-Canadian cast, and is rooted in Chinese mythical tropes, does not yet have a release date set for China, which surpassed the United States as the biggest movie market in 2020.
China has put a cap on imported films as their own domestic industry becomes much more successful. Recently, the government passed a perplexing edict to eradicate “sissy idols” and “effeminate men” from the world of entertainment in an effort to inspire “traditional Chinese culture, revolution culture and socialist culture.” Some reports suggest that Shang-Chi’s casting is politically problematic, and that the comic book’s lore is steeped in stereotypes.
On that final point, there is some truth there, hence adjusting Tony Leung’s character, which was known as Fu Manchu in the comics, to a new character, Wenwu. The film also includes a storyline that strives to make amends for the character of “The Mandarin,” previously played, albeit jokingly, by Ben Kingsley.
Shang-Chi marks the first Marvel Cinematic Universe film not to open in China, where previous entries in the franchise represent a significant overall percentage of their worldwide box office. (As high as 22 percent for Avengers: Endgame.) There are currently no release dates planned for Eternals (out November 5 in the United States) or Spider-Man: No Way Home (out December 17). Keep your fingers crossed for Spidey, but it looks less likely for Eternals. That film’s director, Chloé Zhao, who was born in China and currently lives in California, has received considerable backlash in the nation of her birth, referred to in many reports as a persona non grata.
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