After the Biggest Labor Day Weekend, ‘Shang-Chi’ Sets Record for the Biggest Monday For a Movie During the Pandemic
The newly released Marvel superhero movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been successful in getting audiences to theaters despite the rising number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. The movie, which released on Sep. 3, was expected to do well at the box office, but it smashed records becoming the biggest movie to open on Labor Day Weekend with an earning of more than $90 million over the four-day weekend, according to The Wall Street Journal.
As if this was not enough, the movie’s Monday sales of over $19.2 million also made it the best Monday for a film during the pandemic, Deadline reported.
‘Shang-Chi’ now ranks 27 on the biggest Monday for any movie ever
The highly anticipated movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which will most likely add to the next generation of Marvel’s Avengers, also got the 27th biggest Monday of all time. Box Office pundits expected the movie to make $16.2 million on Monday, while Disney calculated possible earnings of $14.5 million. Going beyond everyone’s estimates, the movie made a whopping $19.2 million.
With its enormous earnings on Sep. 6., it is just behind Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises which earned $19.4 million during its opening Monday in 2012. The movie closely beat Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which earned $19.1 million in 2017.
Another movie from Marvel Studios that Shang-Chi beat with its Monday earnings was Avengers, which earned $18.89 million in 2012.
These records aside, the total earnings of the movie with numbers from all four days in, is now $94.67 million.
‘Shang-Chi’ stays behind and ‘Black Widow’ in its three-day earnings
Even as the movie broke many records over the long weekend, its three days earnings of $75.5 million are still behind its fellow Marvel movie, Black Widow, which made $80.3 million over its three-day opening weekend in July.
This marks an incredible feat for Black Widow since it debuted on Disney+ with a $30 charge the very same day as its theatrical release. This very topic is also the subject of a lawsuit that the Black Widow actor Scarlett Johansson has brought against Disney. The actor claims that she was robbed of Box Office bonuses that Marvel would have awarded her had the movie released exclusively in theaters.
For Shang-Chi, this is not the case since the movie has a 45-day theatrical window. The movie will debut on Disney+ later this year.
What does the future look like for ‘Shang-Chi’?
According to Deadline, the film should continue going strong at the box office this week, retaining its no.1 spot through its second weekend. The film is estimated to earn around $30 million as more figures of its global earnings, which currently stand at $127.6 million, come in.
The Simu Liu-led movie also achieved an important milestone of Asian led superhero movie. It also boasts an all Asian cast — including actors like Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, and Tony Leung.
With the massive success of the movie, both commercial and critical, the scope for movies with diverse cast and stories has expanded. Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings released in theaters on Sep.3.
