by Conan Simmons – September 13, 2021 – 5:41 am
The latest installment in the long running Marvel Cinematic Universe stays reigning champ at the weekend box office.
‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ dipped 62% in its sophomore weekend which is in line with estimates that put it around the 60% mark. After debuting over the Labor Day holiday weekend to the tune of $94.6 million, greatly surpassing most expectations, the superhero adventure took in $35.8 million over the last few days. ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ stars Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh and Fala Chen.
Due to the great success of ‘Shang-Chi’ and the films ability to lift the box office to pre-pandemic levels last weekend Disney has announced that all of their movies for the remainder of 2021 will be theater only releases. This announcement mostly affects movies like the next Marvel installment ‘Eternals’. Other films such as Steven Spielberg’s remake of ‘West Side Story’ were already going to be theater only releases because of contractual obligations from 20th Century Fox dating back nearly ten years. When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox they left the contractual deals in place, which is why movies set up at that studio, from last years ‘The New Mutants’ and the current Ryan Reynolds comedy ‘Free Guy’, have been theater only releases.
Hollywood is squirming with excitement about the prospects of films being released for the remainder of the year as next month will start to see a major release nearly every week. Sony will kick things off with ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ on October 1 followed by the James Bond adventure ‘No Time to Die’ on October 8.
As for Paramount it would seem their delay of releases into next year really was less about the pandemic and more about the corporate restructuring they are in the middle of. Paramount recently named Brian Robbins to the CEO position overseeing the film division and are looking to make Paramount Television a separate entity as they shift from making tv shows for Apple and Netflix and focus more on their own inhouse streaming service Paramount+. Of course, it is still heavily speculated that ViacomCBS chief Shari Redstone is looking for a buyout from another company with AMC and Apple being rumored as front runners.
Paramount’s last release for 2021, ‘PAW Patrol: The Movie’ has fallen out of the Weekend Box Office Top 5. Animated films have been having a good run so perhaps this is due to the fact the film was a day-and-date release on Paramount+.
‘Free Guy’ and ‘Jungle Cruise’ both manage to hold on proving the star power of Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Emily Blunt, who not only stars in ‘Jungle Cruise’ but in ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ which became one of the first hit films of the pandemic era. ‘Free Guy’ also stars Jodie Comer from hit tv show ‘Killing Eve’ and she will next grace the big screen in ‘The Last Duel’ opposite Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Adam Driver.
‘Candyman’ keeps its hook in the Top 5 though it dropped 62% in its third weekend.
Another horror film debuted this weekend in the form of ‘Malignant’ from director James Wan, best known for ‘The Conjuring’ and ‘Aquaman’. The film had a very poor showing of only $5.6 million on its opening weekend. On a $40 million budget it’s going to be a minute before that film can turn a profit. The biggest fault for the poor box office showing is the fact that most of the films advertising touted that it was on HBO Max. A day-and-date release it is also unlikely that HBO Max will brag about how many people watched it.
WEEKEND BOX OFFICE TOP 5 (September 10-12, 2021)
- ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’ – $35.8 million – fantasy (drop $58.8 million, 62% decline)
- ‘Free Guy’ – $5.8 million – comedy (drop $5.4 million, 48% decline)
- ‘Malignant’ – $5.6 million – horror (debut)
- ‘Candyman’ – $4.8 million – horror (drop $7.7 million, 62% decline)
- ‘Jungle Cruise’ – $2.5 million – adventure (drop $2.5 million, 50% decline)
Next weekend will see the wide release of action flick ‘Copshop’ starring Gerard Butler. It is unlikely to topple Marvel from the top spot but should have a decent showing in second place with a debut somewhere in the $20 million range.