Disney's 'Shang-Chi' and 'Free Guy' Rule At Box Office, Clint Eastwood's 'Cry Macho' Flops

The Walt Disney Co. DIS scored a one-two punch with “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Free Guy” at the weekend box office, while Clint Eastwood’s “Cry Macho” significantly underperformed in its theatrical premiere.

What Happened: “Shang-Chi” reigned as the nation’s most popular big screen attraction for the third consecutive week, with $21.7 million in ticket sales from 4,070 theaters. “Free Guy,” which is now in its sixth week of release, placed second at $5.2 million from 3,288 screens.

Both “Shang-Chi” and “Free Guy” were theatrical-exclusive releases, while “Cry Macho” from AT&T’s T Warner Bros. simultaneously opened in theaters and on HBO Max. One could assume the streaming release cannibalized its box office performance – the film brought in $4.5 million from 3,967 screens, making it the third most popular release over the weekend.

Two other new films opening this week fared even worse than “Cry Macho.” The Gerard Butler thriller “Copshop” from Open Road Films ranked sixth with $2.3 million in ticket sales from 3,005 screens while the biopic “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” starring Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield from Disney’s Searchlight Films brought in $675,000 from 450 theaters.

Another Disney title, “Jungle Cruise,” continued to chug along by ranking seventh with $2 million from 2,265 screens – that film is now in its eighth week in theaters and is also available on Disney+.

Other holdovers that attracted moviegoers were the horror films “Candyman” from Comcast’s CMCSA Universal Pictures, with $3.5 million in ticket sales from 2,820 theaters in its fourth week of release, and “Malignant” from AT&T’s New Line Cinema with $2.6 million from 3,485 theaters during its second week in release; Malignant is also available on HBO Max.

What Happens Next: Looking ahead to next weekend, the sole film opening in nationwide release is the adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical “Dear Evan Hanson” from Universal Pictures. The film premiered at the recent Toronto International Film Festival to overwhelmingly negative reviews, with much of the harsh commentary focused on the problems of transitioning a heavily theatrical work into a cinematic format and casting 27-year-old Ben Platt, the star of the original Broadway production, as a troubled high school student.

Another film that premiered at the Toronto festival, the comedy-infused drama “The Starling” starring Melissa McCarthy, arrives on Sept. 24 on Netflix NFLX one week after a limited theatrical release. Also arriving on Netflix is “My Little Pony: A New Generation,” the latest installment in the animated franchise, featuring voice performances by Vanessa Hudgens and James Marsden.

What Else Happened: In other cinematic news, fans of old-time Hollywood musicals paid tribute to actress and singer Jane Powell, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 92.

Born Suzanne Lorraine Bruce, she took the name Jane Powell after the character she played in her first film, the 1943 “Song of the Open Road.” Powell’s song and dance skills made her a star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in classic musicals including “A Date with Judy” (1948), “Royal Wedding” (1951 - see video below) and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954). Later in her career, she starred in the daytime soap operas “Loving” and “As the World Turns” and was a popular presence on Broadway and in regional theaters.

Photo: Clint Eastwood in "Cry Macho," courtesy of Warner Bros.