Credit – Marvel
Wow, entertainment websites are really putting on the heavy shill for ‘Shang-Chi and the legends of the Ten Rings’. With headlines such as “‘Shang-Chi’ To The Moon”, “Marvel’s ‘Shang-Chi’ Crushes Labor Day Weekend Records”, and “‘Shang-Chi’ Smashes Labor Day Record”, you would think this movie was on par with ‘Avengers: Endgame’. They are touting ‘Shang-Chi’ as a huge success with a $71.4 million 3 day opening and a $90 million 4 day holiday haul, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Shang-Chi pulverizes Labor Day weekend? Ok. This is a movie about a character most people have never heard of, no one asked for, and propagandizes to a select group of people as the first Asian-American superhero film. Who cares…we just want to see a great superhero film without all the label baggage and identity politics thrown at us every five minutes. Meanwhile, China still refuses to give Marvel and Disney a release date because they find the movie offensive. I could be wrong, and the next two weeks will see if this thing has legs, but my money is on that it won’t and Disney will find some excuse to blame on ‘Shang-Chi’s’ failure.(Maybe Disney and Marvel can use the Pandemic as an excuse. Up until 6 days ago, sites like Screenrant were ready to tee that up as an excuse for a possible ‘Shang-Chi’ failure.
Biggest Labor Day Weekend Opening of All Time…Yawn
Maybe Disney and Marvel can blame the new Covid variant MU for its expected failure. I’m not really trying to be pessimistic about ‘Shang-Chi’s’ prospects, it’s just that… I really am. With mainstream media really trying their hardest to make this movie seem like it’s going to be a blockbuster is dishonest at best. They are grasping onto the fact that ‘Shang-Chi’ is the biggest Labor Day weekend opening of all time. So? Labor Day weekend releases are typically slow because everyone is out and celebrating the last days of summer. If you look at what ‘Shang-Chi’ was up against it’s really not that surprising that a low tier Marvel movie beat every other movie that was on the list. If you head over to the-numbers.com, you will see that the competition for that weekend top spot was extremely weak and made up of movies that most people have never heard of. If you just look at the 4 movies behind ‘Shang-Chi’ you will be scratching your head wondering why Disney thinks this was such a great feat. 2007’s ‘Halloween’ did $30.5 million, followed by 2012’s ‘The Possession’ which did $21 million, 2005’s ‘Transporter 2’ which did $20 million, and 2013’s ‘One Direction: This is Us’ did $18.4 million. Marvel is proud of beating those movies? They weren’t exactly movers and shakers in the blockbuster world.
Disney and Marvel Should be Worried About the MCU’s Future
Disney should be a little worried because ‘Shang-Chi’, with all of its (bad) marketing, didn’t beat ‘Black Widow’s’ three day opening of $80 million. And… if you compare it to all other MCU movies, it’s only ahead of ‘Thor’, ‘Ant-Man’, ‘Captain America The First Avenger’, and ‘The Incredible Hulk’. If you adjust for inflation, ‘Shang-Chi’ barely beats ‘The Incredible Hulk’ who has a $70.695 million adjusted weekend opening and premiered in a lot less theaters. Plus, the Labor Day weekend wasn’t your typical hot weekend where people were out barbecuing or going to the beach. The weather, at least on the east coast was a little cooler so it gave people a reason to go inside and see a movie. Disney and Marvel’s MCU phase 4 seems to be having a rocky start. ‘Shang-Chi’ needs to do around $400 million just to break even if production and marketing cost estimates are accurate, and that just seems like a big hill to climb for an unknown Marvel character. We shall see, but I think Disney and Marvel might be counting their chickens just a little bit early here and we will see ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ flatten out and dive pretty quickly.
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