In response to his movie passing a huge test, Shang-Chi star Simu Liu dug into his own embarrassing past for the perfect response.
Marvel star Simu Liu is having the last laugh, and he’s more than happy to tell you about it.
Liu, who headlines as Shang-Chi in Marvel’s latest superhero blockbuster, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, fired up his brand of sass on Twitter when it emerged the movie broke box office records in the US, acing its first financial test.
Shang-Chi made $US90 million in America and Canada over its four-day release on a long-weekend public holiday (“Labor Day”) that is traditionally a slow period for cinemagoing. It obliterated the previous $US30 million record set in 2007 by one of the iterations of Halloween, according to Variety.
You can imagine Liu was mighty chuffed with the result, especially as there was hand-wringing over its potential performance as a pandemic-era release and as Marvel’s first movie to be centred on a character from an Asian background.
Liu’s tweet was accompanied by a perfectly smart-arse image, that of himself pointing at a computer screen and laughing. But the better story behind that photo is that it looks like a stock photo because it is.
As a struggling actor hustling for work in Canada, Liu took on all sorts of odd jobs including extras work but also as a stock photo model. He had previously revealed that he did one photo shoot in 2014 as a stock model for $100 and it’s haunted him ever since.
Over the years, his stock photos have been used to sell all kinds of things including banks, public transport, YMCA Canada, recruitment websites and accounting software. Liu is particularly mirthful of that last one because he used to work for an accounting firm before he was fired and decided to pursue a more creative field.
Shang-Chi’s three-day, Friday-Saturday-Sunday box office takings was $US75 million and is second only to Black Widow’s $US80 million debut. It was ahead of F9, A Quiet Place Part II and Free Guy, which are among the higher grossing films since the cinema business was up-ended by covid.
Globally, Shang-Chi has taken $US146.2 million so far.
In Australia, where 60 per cent of the population are under lockdown orders, Shang-Chi netted $1.95 million over the weekend, well ahead of second-placed Free Guy.
Significantly, Shang-Chi has not yet been approved in China, where government censors control the limited number of international films that are released. China is a big market for Marvel – Avengers: Endgame made $US629 million – and a story about a superhero with Asian heritage seems primed for that audience.
In an earnings call in August, Disney chief executive Bob Chapek said Shang-Chi was an “interesting experiment” for the studio, which prompted Liu to respond on social media, “We are not an experiment. We are the underdog; the underestimated. We are the ceiling breakers. We are the celebration of culture and joy that will persevere after an embattled year. We are the surprise. I’m fired the f**k up to make history on September 3rd. Join Us.”
Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige later clarified that Chapek wasn’t referring to Shang-Chi’s story or casting as an “experiment”. Rather, Feige said Chapek was talking about Shang-Chi’s release strategy as the first movie Disney will premiere solely as a cinema experience since the start of the pandemic.
Disney’s release slate in the past 18 months have either been on Disney+ or a hybrid premium streaming and cinema model such as that for Cruella, Mulan, Jungle Cruise and Black Widow.
Disney’s 20th Century Fox releases such as Free Guy have different streaming distribution deals which limits them from being on Disney+ in the first instance.
Shang-Chi is set to be released on Disney+ for subscribers 45 days from its US release in mid-October but this has yet to be confirmed for Australia. Disney Australia has yet to confirm a delayed cinema release in Australian cities and towns that are currently in lockdown.
For Australians in Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings is in cinemas now.
Shang-Chi was largely filmed at Sydney’s Fox Studios.
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2021-09-07 05:26:15Z
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