Box Office: Marvel's 'Shang-Chi' Beat Expectations with $140M Worldwide Opening

Disney/Marvel’s Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings outperformed expectations at the global and international box office this weekend, coming in with $56.2M overseas for the standard frame, and a new Labor Day record $83.5M for the four-day domestic session ($71.4M three-day). Combined, and including the Labor Day estimate, the worldwide total is $139.7M. Stripping out Monday’s domestic forecast, the weekend comes in at $127.6M global.

On screens in 41 material offshore markets, the first Asian American Marvel superhero chimed in with No. 1s in all key hubs, including the biggest three-day opening weekend during the pandemic era in the UK ($7.7M). That market leads all offshore play, followed by Korea with $6.5M, France ($4.3M), Russia ($3.2M) and Japan ($2.8M).

Overall, it is estimated that in like-for-like markets at current exchange rates, the Destin Daniel Cretton-directed Marvel entry’s international bow is 53% ahead of The Suicide Squad and 29% below Black Widow.

Notably not going this session were much of South East Asia and China, where a date is still awaited; Australia is also still 70% closed.

In IMAX, Shang-Chi grossed $13.2M worldwide. This sets a global Labor Day weekend opening record. Internationally, the film took in $5.2M from IMAX on 391 screens in 66 countries.

Six of those set pandemic era debut weekend records, while an additional seven countries had their second best pandemic era start, including the UK and Brazil.

Social and critical scores are high on Shang-Chi, which stars Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Michelle Yeoh, Meng’er Zhang and Benedict Wong.

In France, it’s got a 4.2 from AlloCiné. And, in China, despite not yet being released, the film already has a 7.7 on Douban — Black Widow, which has also not released in the market, carries a 6.3.

There is a fair amount of runway ahead for Shang-Chi which is looking at a potential 3.5 multiple overseas.

The one market which didn’t overperform this session was Korea which typically loves Marvel. However, this is the first Hollywood title to open at No. 1 over several weeks. Social sentiment there is lower than elsewhere.

Meanwhile, even while we still don’t know when/if Shang-Chi will release in China, Disney’s got a hit in that market as 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy held the No. 1 spot all week and has now grossed $57M through Sunday (-23% from last session).

The full international cume is $147.7M for $239.2M global. That makes the Ryan Reynolds-starrer the fifth highest MPA global movie of 2021 to date.

The main new competitor to Shang-Chi this weekend in a handful of markets was Voltage’s After We Fell. The threequel in the successful YA series that stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin opened in 31 markets with $9.2M. The best play was Germany at $1.86M, followed by Russia ($1.45M), Spain ($1.23M), Netherlands ($673K) and Poland ($583K).

Holdover Paw Patrol: The Movie (Paramount) continues to be a dog with a bone. It added $7.1M in 47 markets this session, lifting the international cume to $50.3M in 89% of the offshore footprint.

The holdover drop from last week is 50%. Major markets still to open are Brazil and Australia.

September 06, 2021