From ‘Black Widow’ to ‘Shang-Chi,’ Superhero Cinema Confronts an Uncertain Box Office Future

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has exceeded expectations on its box-office debut. The latest outing in the MCU scored a $75.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorFrom dragon scales to the five elements of Chinese philosophy, production designer Sue Chan worked to incorporate numerous element into the set details of Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”From ancient worlds to San Francisco and a magical village protected by dragons, Chan and her team were faced with the mammoth task of striking a variety of moods as Simu Liu’s Shang Chi and the audience travel through these scenes.A monotone palette was used for

Defying what has historically been a slow end-of-summer frame at the box office, Disney/Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” smashed records over the Labor Day weekend by grossing an estimated $71.4 million over the three-day frame and a Disney-projected $83.5 million through Monday from 4,300 locations.

That 3-day total is second only to the $80 million opening for “Black Widow” on the list of highest post-shutdown domestic opening weekend totals and just tops the $70 million opening for “F9” earlier this summer. The 4-day total is also nearly triple the previous record for the highest Labor Day opening weekend record of $30.5 million set by “Halloween” in 2007.

Spoiler alert: This post contains massive spoilers from “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”“Shang-Chi and the Legends of the 10 Rings,” Marvel’s first film with an Asian lead and cast, is full of cultural and mythological references. While the titular “Legend of the 10 Rings” is a tale created for the film, other elements are rooted in Chinese culture — both traditional and modern.Here are the Chinese customs from “Shang-Chi” explained, in order of appearance:Breakfast porridgeWhen Shaun

, Marvel's new joint ushering the Master of Kung Fu from the comics into the MCU: Of the months of training star Simu Liu took on to master those martial arts and look the part of a Marvel superhero. Of the long weeks spent shooting even one of the set pieces, with much of the stunt work done by the cast themselves.

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Black Panther,” is based on a comic book most moviegoers barely knew anything about when they first walked into the theater. Didn’t matter.

Awkwafina in your project, you know you're going to come out on the other end with a happy bestie-ship between her character and someone else. In, that someone is Shang-Chi himself, with Awkwafina as his best friend, faithful fellow slacker and would-be hero, Katy.«Aww, man.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Free Guy” grabbed a convincing win at the top of the China box office, marking the end of a Hollywood drought and was earned despite difficult conditions.The family-friendly comedy earned $23.8 million in three days, according to data from Artisan Gateway. That was fully 56% of the nationwide theatrical haul between Friday and Sunday.It earned $3.77 million of its total from Imax screens.

Refresh for latest…: One of the only Hollywood titles to recently be granted a China release date, Disney/20th Century Studios’ Free Guy flew into the market with a $23.9M start. This is a solid launch in the Middle Kingdom, particularly in the current climate, and helped push the Ryan Reynolds-starrer past $100M at the international box office. The full offshore weekend was $37.3M in 47 markets, a slight 23% drop from last session, and the total overseas cume is now $100.3M for $179.6M global.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (★★★☆☆), the first Marvel entry to feature a predominantly Asian cast. Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy), the film expands the franchise mythology, while leaping feet-first into its own style of wuxia action superhero fantasy steeped in Chinese culture.The plot still relies on the regular go-to of a villain coveting magical talismans — in this case, the titular ten legendary rings.

Rebecca Davis editorDisney’s “Luca” is the first Hollywood picture to get a release in China in weeks, but its opening figures didn’t make that big of a splash — at least, not close to enough to douse the continued reign of Donnie Yen action film “Raging Fire.”The animation directed and co-written by Enrico Casarosa swam to a $5.1 million China opening weekend, according to consultancy Artisan Gateway.

Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings.The character was Shang-Chi’s father in the comic book version of the story, but has widely been derided as racist and a symbol of the Yellow Peril stereotype.In an interview with Chinese film critic Raymond Zhou at the film’s premiere this week, Feige spoke out about Fu Manchu not being included in the movie.

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Last year, James Blake became another one of TikTok's unlikely success stories thanks to a viral cover of Frank Ocean's "Godspeed." With that burst of momentum, the English singer-songwriter will soon release his new album Friends That Break Your Heart, out September 10.

BBC News), £65.7 million was spent in the four weeks following “freedom day” on July 19. In the same set of weeks for 2019, there was £129 million in box office takings.The results were similar in the US, with the last four weeks generating 51 cent of the corresponding 2019 figures.The sales boost comes from releases like Marvel’s Black Widow and Fast & Furious 9, although both films achieved lower takings than previously expected due to the pandemic.