Once again, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has earned first place at the domestic box office with an impressive $21 million secured in its third week of release. The latest Marvel installment only fell 39% from its position last weekend, an impressive hold given audiences' weariness in returning to theaters. At the domestic box office, Shang-Chi has now earned $176.9 million, placing it as the second-highest-grossing domestic film of the year behind Black Widow.
New releases, in Clint Eastwood's Cry Macho and the Gerard Butler-starring Copshop, struggled to get their footing in their theatrical debuts. Free Guy was able to hold onto second place at the box office, earning $5.2 million. This week marks that film's sixth week of release, and director Shawn Levy and star Ryan Reynolds have helped the film drum up $108.6 million domestically. The continued success of films like Shang-Chi and Free Guy (though modest in comparison to pre-pandemic box office numbers) keeps proving that audiences will venture out for large-scale blockbuster fare that can't be viewed at home.
Both Shang-Chi and Free Guy have had little competition in way of other major blockbusters, but that should change with an extremely overstuffed October. The first weekend will see the release of Sony's Venom: Let There Be Carnage, while in the second weekend of the month, audiences will finally be able to savor the long-delayed 25th installment of the James Bond franchise in No Time to Die. There's just about something for everyone next month, as Dune, The French Dispatch, Halloween Kills, and Last Night in Soho (among several other titles) will all see the light of their release dates. And with a plethora of different release strategies deployed, the fall box office should prove very exciting to watch.
The Western drama Cry Macho was able to debut in third place with $4.5 million. Eastwood's latest is available through HBO Max as a film in Warner Bros'. hybrid release strategy. Several of these Warner Bros. films have struggled to make a significant impact at the domestic box office, with Cry Macho joining the likes of Malignant, Reminiscence, and even The Suicide Squad. It should be noted that Cry Macho didn't underperform too significantly, with analysts predicting it could make anywhere from $5 to $7 million.
The rest of the box office top five consisted of holdovers from previous weekends, with Nia DaCosta's Candyman maintaining the fourth place. The horror film earned $3.5 million in its fourth week of release. Another horror film in James Wan's Malignant gathered $2.6 million and the fifth place spot in its second week. Candyman has thus far made $53 million in North America, while Malignant has earned a disappointing $9.8 million against a $40 million budget.