Marvel’s SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS hit theaters over the weekend, and many wondered if audiences would show up during this strange time of Covid, especially when there’s no streaming options to watch it. There’s also the somewhat lackluster box office of Marvel’s BLACK WIDOW earlier this year, though some blamed that on the fact that Disney+ carried that film day-and-date as a streaming rental, which likely played a big part in why the box office wasn’t better. There’s actually been a number a YouTube trolling channels that were wishing for and even predicting SHANG-CHI to be a colossal failure. Well, their eating their words now, as that absolutely did not happen.
The numbers are in, and SHANG-CHI not only brought in $75.5 million in just the first three days of its domestic opening weekend, rising to $90 million thanks to the extra day (Labor Day), and earned a Worldwide gross of $146.2 million… and that’s taking into account that it’s not done opening in certain markets, including China. This means you can almost certainly expect more money to roll in. The domestic gross for opening weekend also broke a record in a big way, as the previous Labor Day weekend box office record was held by Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN remake, which was released fourteen years ago, and even then only grossed $30.6 million. That’s impressive, especially considering many people are still nervous about going to movie theaters right now. It also bodes well for the upcoming ETERNALS, directed by Chloe Zhao, another film those YouTube trolls are very much hoping will fail.
If you haven’t seen director Dustin Daniel Cretton’s SHANG-CHI yet, we strongly recommend you check it out, as it’s easily one of Marvel’s best so far. Simu Liu is terrific in the lead, Awkwafina is very funny and endearing in her role, and Tony Leung is a fantastic villian. It’s also very different from many of the other Marvel movies, very much setting the tone for interesting things to come in this new Phase for Marvel Studios. We’ll leave you with this rather fun Tweet from Simu Liu, in which he takes some well-deserved pleasure in proving the YouTube trolls so very wrong.
Me laughing at the people who thought we’d flop pic.twitter.com/7UoLqRXlCJ
— Simu Liu (刘思慕) (@SimuLiu) September 6, 2021
Marvel Studios’ “Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. The film also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu and Ronny Chieng.
Born and raised in Dallas, Mark has been a movie critic since 1994, with reviews featured in print, radio and National TV. In 2001 he started the Entertainment section of the Herorealm website, where he contributed film reviews and celebrity interviews until 2004. After three years of service there, he started Bigfanboy.com, which has become one of the Dallas film community's leading information websites. Bigfanboy hosts several movie screenings in the Texas area, and works closely with film and TV studios and promotional partners to host exciting events and contests. The site also features a variety of rare celebrity and filmmaker interviews, and Bigfanboy.com regularly covers the film festival circuit as well. In addition to Hollywood reporting, Mark has worked for many years as an advertising and sci-fi/comic book artist. Clients have included Lucasfilm Ltd., Topps Trading Cards, The Dallas Mavericks and The Dallas Stars. From 2002 until 2015 he managed the Dallas Comic Con, Sci-Fi Expo and Fan Days events in the DFW area. He currently catalogs rare comic books and movie memorabilia for Heritage Auctions, and runs the Dallas Comic Show conventions, but remains an avid moviegoer and cinema buff. 
