Congratulations to “Shang Chi The Legend of the Ten Rings” for running the table in September and finishing in first place for a fourth consecutive weekend. By grossing $13.3M and dropping only 39%, the film easily bested the second-place finisher “Dear Evan Hansen,” which could only muster $7.5M. “Shang Chi” has grossed $196.5M in the North American box office since its opening on Labor Day weekend and has now surpassed “Black Widow” as the highest-grossing picture of 2021.
“Dear Evan Hansen” was the fourth film to open wide against “Shang Chi,” and each one – “Malignant” ($5.5M), “Cry Macho” ($4.5M), “Copshop” ($2.4M) and now “Dear Evan Hansen” all failed to reach $8M in their first three days. Despite the stellar performance of “Shang-Chi” throughout the month, the lack of support from other wide releases has made this year’s September one of the weakest on record.
The anticipated total 3-day gross for all films this weekend is a mere $37.7M, which amounts to only 39% of the gross for the same weekend in 2019. This shortfall will have us ending the month after 4 more days with very little momentum as we begin the Fourth Quarter. Next week, we predict that “Shang Chi” will give up first place to a worthy opponent with the opening of “Venom: Let There be Carnage.”
How far “Shang-Chi” falls will depend on the performance of two other wide releases opening next week: “The Addams Family 2” and “The Many Saints of Newark.” One thing for certain is that October will be much busier than September on the strength of these new 10/1 openers and No Time To Die, Halloween Kills, and Dune later in the month.