Marvel's Shang-Chi Film in Development

[Andrew NDB]

Seems like it's not doing as well as Black Widow. It's opening weekend was 75 million while Black Widow's was 80 million... which doesn't sound like a big gap, but that 80 million doesn't include the 60 million from Disney+ exclusive sales. Shang-Chi won't have any Disney+ exclusive sales.

[IMJ]

Access media's endless bull $#!(..... clickbait like "Shang Chi DESTROYS Projected Box Office", or other such headlines with bombastic language.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IMJ

Access media's endless bull $#!(..... clickbait like "Shang Chi DESTROYS Projected Box Office", or other such headlines with bombastic language.

Yeah, I admit, I was shocked when I looked at the numbers. Every article I've seen seeing flash in front of me has been about "Shang-Chi BLOWS AWAY ALL EXPECTATIONS!!" and so on.

Like, they really expected it to do smaller numbers than Black Widow? Which was already pretty small number, compared to all the other MCU movies? There's no way.

[IMJ]

They'll blame everything on pandemics and nervous movie goers instead of admitting to alienating their core audiences, straying from the source material, inserting overt political agendas and otherwise behaving and making content in ways that turns off the regular people that otherwise support the I.P.'s.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by IMJ

They'll blame everything on pandemics and nervous movie goers instead of admitting to alienating their core audiences, straying from the source material, inserting overt political agendas and otherwise behaving and making content in ways that turns off the regular people that otherwise support the I.P.'s.

Not to mention, boring characters no one ever heard of or cared about. I mean the same be said about Guardians of the Galaxy, but they had a talking raccoon, a talking tree, green Bautista and a hot green woman. I'm sure if the Guardians were just.... 4 or 5 normal looking joes, no one would care.

On a similar note, the first Suicide Squad had Harley Quinn, Will Smith, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Harley Quinn. The second Suicide Squad had John Cena and a talking shark guy, and Harley was there too. Not sayin either were big successes (though I heard people really liked the second one) but the characters were weird enough to make people go see it out of curiosity.

I can see this one might have gotten more attention if say... Jackie Chan was in the movie somewhere, maybe as the dude's mentor or something. I'm sure people would have been curious enough to see what he'd do in this movie.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Not to mention, boring characters no one ever heard of or cared about. I mean the same be said about Guardians of the Galaxy, but they had a talking raccoon, a talking tree, green Bautista and a hot green woman. I'm sure if the Guardians were just.... 4 or 5 normal looking joes, no one would care.

On a similar note, the first Suicide Squad had Harley Quinn, Will Smith, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc and Harley Quinn. The second Suicide Squad had John Cena and a talking shark guy, and Harley was there too. Not sayin either were big successes (though I heard people really liked the second one) but the characters were weird enough to make people go see it out of curiosity.

I can see this one might have gotten more attention if say... Jackie Chan was in the movie somewhere, maybe as the dude's mentor or something. I'm sure people would have been curious enough to see what he'd do in this movie.

I would've given this movie a shot, but there are two distinct mechanisms of action that I'm not afraid to point out:

1. This was the movie, along with IM 3 that basically f'd up the Mandarin, probably for an entire generation of Iron Man fans.
2. As soon as the virtue signal nonsense came out about "the FIRST Asian superhero" as if this was progressive nonsense instead of just having the movie be quality entertainment, I was out.

That's it. I don't need nor want to hide behind socially-acceptable criticisms just so that the bottom feeders of the internet play-pretend that those are somehow more acceptable than the truth.
Having a movie with third tier characters from any ethnic background is cool; but giving a finger to the fans and virtue signaling is nonsense. That's just my perspective though - I mean if the deep cut characters aren't interesting to someone on their own merits, that's fine too.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by IMJ

I would've given this movie a shot, but there are two distinct mechanisms of action that I'm not afraid to point out:

1. This was the movie, along with IM 3 that basically f'd up the Mandarin, probably for an entire generation of Iron Man fans.
2. As soon as the virtue signal nonsense came out about "the FIRST Asian superhero" as if this was progressive nonsense instead of just having the movie be quality entertainment, I was out.

That's it. I don't need nor want to hide behind socially-acceptable criticisms just so that the bottom feeders of the internet play-pretend that those are somehow more acceptable than the truth.
Having a movie with third tier characters from any ethnic background is cool; but giving a finger to the fans and virtue signaling is nonsense. That's just my perspective though - I mean if the deep cut characters aren't interesting to someone on their own merits, that's fine too.

Literally the first few reviews just went on and on gushing about first Asian this and representation that but no mention of what the movie is actually about or if it was good or bad.

Like literally the only thing that matters is 'first Asian hero's while Bruce and Brandon Lee laugh from their graves.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Literally the first few reviews just went on and on gushing about first Asian this and representation that but no mention of what the movie is actually about or if it was good or bad.

Fortunately it IS rather good. But absolutely it is telling the way people gush about one skin color over another one.

[Andrew NDB]

Looks like it will be lucky to limp to 180 million domestically. It MIGHT hit about 295 worldwide, but this is the end of the third weekend already... most/all of that money is going to the theaters now.

So yeah. It's going to end significantly less successfully as Black Widow, doing "The Incredible Hulk" numbers. Which represented the worst of the MCU's box office. Even Ant-Man 1 has a bigger box office than this.

I wonder what will happen if The Eternals (which is 50 million more expensive than Shang Chi), like, totally tanks? Like, performs significantly worse than Shang-Chi? I'm really not hearing a lot of buzz about it.

[CyberCubed]

The movie is up on streaming so I watched it. Was a fun kung fu martial arts flick with mystical elements so I liked it for that reason. I don’t know who the superheroes were but it was basically just an Asian version of Black Panther, they even had their own hidden Asian village like Wakanda.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by IMJ

I would've given this movie a shot, but there are two distinct mechanisms of action that I'm not afraid to point out:

1. This was the movie, along with IM 3 that basically f'd up the Mandarin, probably for an entire generation of Iron Man fans.
2. As soon as the virtue signal nonsense came out about "the FIRST Asian superhero" as if this was progressive nonsense instead of just having the movie be quality entertainment, I was out.

That's it. I don't need nor want to hide behind socially-acceptable criticisms just so that the bottom feeders of the internet play-pretend that those are somehow more acceptable than the truth.
Having a movie with third tier characters from any ethnic background is cool; but giving a finger to the fans and virtue signaling is nonsense. That's just my perspective though - I mean if the deep cut characters aren't interesting to someone on their own merits, that's fine too.

I still say this is the equivalent of say...

Batman looking for the Joker in a movie and it turns out Joker was some drunk guy hired to play a clown and the real villain was the Riddler or something

Batman dies in another movie fighting Darkseid

The real Joker appears but in a Blue Beetle movie. Sure, it's cool to finally see the real Joker make an appearance but we'll never see Batman VS The Joker.

That's basically what IM3, End Game and Shang Chi did.

[ProphetofGanja]

There's nothing wrong with enjoying things for what they are sometimes, guys, you'll be a lot happier, I promise

[AquaParade]

First half was great but the film completely devolved in the second half into just another predictable MCU film where everything comes too easy, there is a war without a drop of blood, and everything becomes a green screen.

I just can’t do these fake looking, cgi-filled third acts anymore. Really hope Spider-Man can rise above by just maintaining super high quality or some storytelling surprises.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by ProphetofGanja

There's nothing wrong with enjoying things for what they are sometimes, guys, you'll be a lot happier, I promise

?

I don't think disdain at a movie direction or rejection of pop-culture that went sideways is a sign of life-unhappiness, man. You saying that it is looks like a pretty simple minded evaluation. I think you misunderstood the litmus test for the cliche response.

The litmus test is actually "who bugs up when other people are successful or happy".... or "who uses the first opportunity to crassly lash out on social media against anything" or "who twists words into straw man points to pretend they made a real point". Those are signs that someone needs to adjust their perception and would be a lot happier.

It's not whether or not you are poignantly unhappy with a Marvel flick - and saying otherwise is some peasant-level understanding of reality, dude. There's nothing wrong with rejecting pop culture when it doesn't suit you and then discussing it poignantly.

Again with you.....

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

I still say this is the equivalent of say...

Batman looking for the Joker in a movie and it turns out Joker was some drunk guy hired to play a clown and the real villain was the Riddler or something

Batman dies in another movie fighting Darkseid

The real Joker appears but in a Blue Beetle movie. Sure, it's cool to finally see the real Joker make an appearance but we'll never see Batman VS The Joker.

That's basically what IM3, End Game and Shang Chi did.

Real Mandarin seemingly does exist in the MCU...but, I ca understand people's frustration with this idea, especially since real villain of IM3 was pretty boring, like most MCU villains. Still, love this movie.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Real Mandarin seemingly does exist in the MCU...

Yeah, wasn't he the main villain of Shang Chi? That's what I mean. The equivalent of not introducing the Joker until a Blue Beetle movie or something random years after Batman died in that cinematic universe.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by sdp

I wonder what the MCU would've been like without Disney, would it have become the juggernaut it did? Obviously not to the same level but would it have been able to get all those movies made? It likely would've been a slower release schedule, it would've been a hit but maybe not a mega hit.

It was a juggernaut the moment Iron Man one was launched and widely accepted, even amidst the Dark Knight snobbery.

[Coola Yagami]

I kinda miss the event is used to be, but it's fitting it ended with End Game.

I mean their schedule used to be 'release a few character solo movies' then it all comes together with the Avengers movie, and sometimes an aftermath movie.

Like how people consider the MCU movies to be 'episodes', if so the Avengers movies were the season finales.

Now all of these are weird and scatterbrained. Where is the end goal here? Between Shang Chi, Eternals, Spider-Man (which is more of a spider-season finale) and Dr Strange, where is their big season finale movie? What's the movie that connects all these pieces together?

[IMJ]

My bets are that they will kill off Tom Holland for Miles Morales in this new movie.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IMJ

My bets are that they will kill off Tom Holland for Miles Morales in this new movie.

I don't think that's even a remote possibility and wouldn't make any sense for Sony. By some miracle, they now have a Spider-Man whose movies make money and are critically OK... now that he's established and before they can even take him and retreat back to some kind of standalone, sh***y Sony universe (if need be)... they would kill him off? Just fingers crossed that everyone will fall in love with whoever is Miles, straight away?

No chance. It'd be one thing if Tom Holland was going around saying he's absolutely done with the character... but he's not. He's saying the opposite. It'd also be another thing if Spider-Man was entirely a Disney/Marvel asset... I could see a case for Disney wanting to "diversify" Spider-Man in such a way, maybe (beyond maybe Chickbusters just being allowed to be, does Sony even care about woke sh**, though?), though even then not anytime soon as the Holland Spider-Man is still a juggernaut. But it's not a Disney/Marvel asset, it's only a Sony asset that's in the MCU in a kind of time share on their "good" graces. There is simply no way anyone at Sony is going, "Let's start all over again!" because they know how that will go. For Sony, I'm sure they DO want to introduce Miles Morales ASAP... not to replace Peter (though it would certainly be a backup plan) but to immediately launch a bunch of Miles Morales spinoff movies that they would hope Marvel Studios would produce for them but if not, no sweat, they'll just do them on their own while still milking however much mileage they can out of the Holland Spider-Man. That'd be way more marketable than, say, any Spider-Man spinoff Sony has had in preproduction, ever.