It’s expected Disney is waiting upon the box-office results of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” to see if their next Marvel feature “Eternals” will follow suit and stick with a theatrical only release – or if it will take the “Black Widow” route with a simultaneous Disney+ Premier Access launch.
Judging by the early numbers, theatrical only could be winning as “Shang-Chi” pulled in $29.6 million at the U.S. box-office on Friday (that includes $8.8 million in Thursday night previews).
To put that in comparison, it’s about on par with Universal’s “F9: The Fast Saga” with $29.9 million on its opening day which is an excellent result – especially considering Shang-Chi’s opening on Labor Day weekend, is traditionally a very quiet one even without the pandemic in play.
The result is behind the $39.5 million opening day box-office for “Black Widow” in early July (that doesn’t include that film’s Disney+ Premier Access tally either), but ahead of opening days of four Marvel ‘first film’ entries for individual heroes like “The Incredible Hulk,” “Thor,” “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Ant-Man”.
The movie scored well with critics with a 92% (7.5/10) on Rotten Tomatoes, and an A CinemaScore from audiences. It’s expected the film is now on track for a $75-85 million debut over the four-day holiday weekend (and around $70 million for the three-day), though a real test will be the film’s staying power at the box-office and how it fares next week.
Source: Forbes