Shang-Chi earned more than Ten Rings atop the U.S. Box Office this weekend, collecting $35.8 million in a healthy sophomore frame for the Marvel blockbuster.
The Simu Liu and Awkwafina staring superhero movie suffered a decline of -53% at the North American box-office, which isn’t unusual for a Marvel blockbuster, particularly those released in this pandemic-era world of cinemagoing. However, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is holding up better than Black Widow, which came out earlier in the summer, but was available for Disney+ subscribers for a premium price of $30, and took a -70% nosedive in its second frame.
The weekend saw Shang-Chi’s domestic gross climb to $145.6M, which easily puts it in sight of Black Widow’s domestic tally of $145.6M. It has also fought its way towards a global cume of $257.6M, and that’s without a release date in the box-office behemoth that is China.
SEE ALSO: Shang-Chi’s China release in doubt due to past remarks from Simu Liu
The only serious competition for Shang-Chi arrived in the form of James Wan’s Malignant, which wasn’t screened to critics in order to save its surprises for audiences, debuted in a day-and-date HBO Max release format, and was barely marketed by Warner Bros. It’s no surprise then that the divisive horror only managed a meagre $5.57M for the weekend. Disappointing considering the genre performances from the likes of Old, Candyman, and A Quiet Place Part II, coupled with Wan’s Insidious and The Conjuring credentials. Overseas Malignant made $6.3M for an international total of $9.5M and a global tally of $15.1M. A truly horrific outcome for the $40M budgeted movie.
To end on a positive note, summer success story Free Guy finally managed to cross the $100M mark at the domestic box-office, taking its global tally to an impressive $276.5M.
The full chart can be found over at Box Office Mojo.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy) and stars Simu Liu (Kim’s Convenience) as Shang-Chi, Tony Leung (Infernal Affairs) as Wenwu, Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) as Katy, newcomer Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, Michelle Yeoh (Star Trek: Discovery) as Jiang Nan, Ronny Chieng (Crazy Rich Asians) as Jon Jon, Fala Chen (The Undoing) as Jiang Li, Florian Munteanu (Creed II) as Razor Fist, and Benedict Wong (Doctor Strange) as Wong.
