After enjoying three consecutive frames atop of the North American box office, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings faced perhaps its biggest competitor yet this weekend with the release of Universal’s Dear Evan Hansen, an adaptation of the mega-popular Broadway musical. But a tidal wave of negative buzz kept the latter film from overtaking the Marvel blockbuster at the top of the heap.
Shang-Chi hung on to the No. 1 spot for the fourth weekend in a row with an estimated $13.3M. The Disney/Marvel release now stands at an excellent $196.5M, making it the highest-grossing title of the year, not to mention of the pandemic era. On both fronts, it surpassed fellow MCU title Black Widow ($183.56M) on Friday (with the obvious caveat that the latter film debuted day-and-date on Disney+, thereby dampening its theatrical prospects).
Dear Evan Hansen, which debuted exclusively in theaters, opened to an estimated $7.5M from 3,364 locations in second place, a disappointment given the brand-name IP. And yet the dramatic musical couldn’t overcome the avalanche bad hype that began with its debut at the Toronto Film Festival earlier in the month, where it was greeted by a slew of scorching reviews (its current Rotten Tomatoes average stands at 33%). Like In the Heights from this past summer, the film simply couldn’t extend out from its core audience; unlike In the Heights, that was compounded by poor word-of-mouth across both social and traditional media. The film’s opening weekend audience skewed heavily female (62% vs. 38% male) and fairly young, with 71% under the age of 34.
In third place, 20th Century Studios’ Free Guy posted another small decline in its seventh weekend of release, dipping just 19% to an estimated $4.1M. The remarkably leggy Ryan Reynolds action-comedy has taken in $114.1M since its mid-August debut.
Universal’s Candyman held steady in fourth place with an estimated $2.5M in its fifth weekend, a drop of 29% from last weekend. The horror sequel/reboot has $56.8M to date.
In its second frame, Cry Macho dropped 52% to an estimated $2.12M, good for fifth place. The Clint Eastwood drama, which debuted day-and-date on HBO Max, has a disappointing $8.34M so far.
Sixth place went to Disney’s Jungle Cruise, which took in an estimated $1.72M for a total of $114.89M through the end of its sixth weekend of release. Closely behind in seventh place was Warner Bros. Malignant, which grossed an estimated $1.5M for a total of $12.26M after four weeks.
Copshop tumbled 45% in its sophomore frame to an estimated $1.27M, giving it just $4.5M after 10 days of release. It was followed in ninth by Paw Patrol: The Movie, which grossed an estimated $1.12M for a total of $38.76M after six weeks.
Finally, Searchlight Pictures’ The Eyes of Tammy Faye added over 900 screens in its second weekend and took in an estimated $621k from 1,352 locations. The biopic starring Jessica Chastain has a mild $1.53M total so far.
OVERSEAS
Warner Bros.’ Dune posted another strong weekend overseas with an estimated $26.3M from 32 markets, including $3.1M from 167 IMAX screens (for a per-screen IMAX average of $18.5k). Second-weekend holds were sturdy across the board, including in Russia ($4.9M, down 37%), France ($4.6M, -33%), and Germany ($3.4M, -23%). The sci-fi epic will next open in nine additional international territories, including Japan, on Oct. 15.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings grossed an estimated $14M in 44 territories, bringing its international total to $166.9M and its global total to $363.4M. It finished at No. 1 in 18 territories, including the U.K., Australia, Brazil, and Mexico.
Free Guy took in an estimated $5.1M in 48 territories for an international total of $203.3M (including $94.8M in China) and a global total of $317.4M.
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