This weekend at the domestic box office, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings reached another box office milestone that puts it in line with fellow MCU titles Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy. Since its release in early September, Shang-Chi has been a box office sensation, something that’s all the more remarkable when considering all the debate that went down over its release. While Disney opted to send previous MCU title Black Widow to streaming on the same day as theaters, Shang-Chi received an exclusive theatrical run amid growing concerns over the Delta variant and rising COVID case numbers.

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Nevertheless, Shang-Chi broke the Labor Day record for the biggest opening when it earned $75 million over the first 3 days, then $90 million for the entire holiday weekend. Then, in a time when some big-budget movies dropped hard in their second weekends (F9, Black Widow), the Simu Liu-starring movie continued to hold up week after week. On Saturday, Shang-Chi officially became the highest-grossing movie of 2021, surpassing Black Widow.

Per Deadline, Shang-Chi has remained atop the box office for the fourth weekend in a row. To further demonstrate its impressive staying power, Shang-Chi earned $13.3 million for the 3 days, bringing its domestic total to $196.5 million. This puts the movie on track to become the first pandemic-era film to earn over $200 million domestically. Additionally, by holding the number one spot for four weeks in a row, Shang-Chi has matched the MCU record held by Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy for the longest amount of time at the top spot.

Shang-Chi‘s immense success comes as this weekend’s biggest new release, Dear Evan Hansen, crumbles. The musical adaptation, which stars Ben Platt, earned only $7.5 million for the weekend. Its poor box office result comes amid negative reviews, further cementing Dear Evan Hansen‘s place as a disappointing release. The rest of the top five was filled out by Free Guy (which has also demonstrated remarkable staying power), Candyman, and Cry Macho.

Sadly, it seems likely that Shang-Chi‘s time at #1 will come to an end next weekend. After weeks of smaller budget fare, Sony will finally release Venom: Let There Be Carnage on October 1. Odds are, that will end up taking the box office crown. Still, Shang-Chi has proven to be a huge hit and proof that movie theaters are coming back after the immense losses from the pandemic. It has secured its place within MCU history between the Labor Day success and its shared record with Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy. This also bodes well for Eternals in November, another MCU movie centered on new characters. There might’ve been a lot of debate over its financial potential this summer, but Shang-Chi has silenced the naysayers several times over.

Source: Deadline

Key Release Dates
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  • Eternals (2021)Release date: Nov 05, 2021
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)Release date: May 06, 2022
  • Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)Release date: Jul 08, 2022
  • Black Panther: Wakanda Forever/Black Panther 2 (2022)Release date: Nov 11, 2022
  • The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (2023)Release date: Feb 17, 2023
  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)Release date: Jul 28, 2023
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)Release date: May 05, 2023
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About The Author


Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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