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Source: Variety
Of all the times to expect a major blockbuster to break out and make big bucks at the box office, Labor Day weekend has historically not been one of them. Widely considered to be the end of the summer box office season, the first weekend of September has hardly ever been valued as a time when a film would see a huge audience turn out to come see it. After all, with so many people preparing to go back to school and work, there usually isn’t much incentive for them to go out to the movies. Because of this, the majority of films released on Labor Day weekend over the past few decades have not received much revenue over their opening weekends. The largest amount such a film would generate was $30.6 million, which went to Rob Zombie’s remake of “Halloween” all the way back in 2007; while that’s a respectable amount for a low-budget horror movie, it’s nowhere near as much as a studio would want to go to a production they spent well over $100 million on. If this is as big as a film released on Labor Day weekend can get, it’s no wonder Hollywood has historically hesitated to take advantage of the four-day holiday weekend.
Leave it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, arguably the biggest film franchise of the present day, to completely upend those preconceptions though. Although the Disney-owned Marvel Studios had originally intended to release their latest film, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, all the way back in February of this year, setbacks related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic would eventually force the film to come out seven months later than expected, making the surprising move of taking up a Labor Day weekend release. While it’s hard to say how much better the film would’ve performed had it come out as originally intended (at least under normal circumstances; the presence of COVID would’ve certainly had a negative impact), there’s little to complain about how well “Shang-Chi” actually did end up performing. Despite the supposedly less than ideal release date and concerns about the spread of the Coronavirus’ Delta variant, “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” found a way to completely shatter box office records upon its nationwide premiere on September 3rd, taking in $75.5 million over the initial Friday-Sunday period (more than double of what previous record-holder “Halloween” made), then adding just under $19 million on the following Monday for a four-day total of $94.4 million.
Under normal circumstances, this would certainly be an impressive feat for the Marvel brand, especially considering this is a completely new aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that had been barely touched upon by the series’ previous installments. Although “Shang-Chi” did not quite reach the heights that such juggernauts as “Black Panther” or “Captain Marvel”, it was still able to perform much better than how the likes of “Ant-Man” and “Doctor Strange” performed over the course of their opening weekends. However, with the pandemic still being a major concern throughout much of the nation, these are hardly normal circumstances, and the success “Shang-Chi” has received so far is nothing short of astonishing. In fact, out of all films released throughout the year, the opening weekend total ranks as the second-highest up to this point, being bested by only the $80.4 million that fellow Marvel film “Black Widow” earned back in July, proving just how lucrative and reliable the Marvel brand has proven to be even in these incredibly uncertain times.
There are several possible reasons why “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” was able to surpass even the most optimistic of expectations. Many have cited the excitement that many have had to see Marvel’s first film to feature an Asian lead and a cast made up of primarily Asian actors, believing the film to be something of a landmark for diversity in filmmaking. Others have pointed to the overwhelmingly positive reception the film has received from both critics and audiences, evidenced by a 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an “A” score on Cinemascore. However, it’s also quite possible that the main reason the film was able to do so well in theaters is because of the fact that it could only be seen in theaters. This is unlike most of the previous Disney releases (including “Black Widow”), which also had the option of being viewed from the Disney-owned streaming service Disney+ for an additional surcharge of around $30. “Shang-Chi” had no such option though, and those who wanted to see it over the weekend had to go out to their local theater to do so. Clearly, the theaters-only strategy is paying off quite well for the film (as it is for “Free Guy”, another Disney-distributed release), and there is much hope that such success will continue on for a bit longer.
With all that said, despite how impressive the film’s opening weekend is, how much long-term success “Shang-Chi” is still a bit uncertain. On the one hand, while the film is currently not available to watch on Disney+, it has been announced that the film will come to the streaming site forty-five days after the beginning of its theatrical release (somewhere around mid-October), so it’s possible that a significant chunk of “Shang-Chi”’s potential audience will hold off on seeing the film until they can view it for free (excluding the usual monthly fee for the service as a whole) from the comfort of their homes. There’s also the matter of the film’s international performance; outside the United States, the film earned $56.2 million from such foreign markets as France, Japan, and the United Kingdom. While this is still a respectable total, the key factor in how well “Shang-Chi” does overseas is the box office giant that is China, where it has yet to find a release date. Should this issue persist, then there’s a strong chance that the film might not be as successful as it could be in the long run.
For the time being though, Disney is viewing the results of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” as nothing less than a great success, especially considering how much better the film is doing in comparison to other recent films of its scale. With the next of such films not expected for at least a couple more weeks, there’s plenty of time for “Shang-Chi” to build upon its success, and considering how well liked the film is, there’s little reason to worry as of yet.
