TOLDJA – ETERNALS has nearly identical opening to SHANG-CHI

There’s been a lot written about the opening weekend for ETERNALS. Most of it has been doom and gloom, largely due to the lukewarm reviews for the film. 

But, with a $71.3M debut, ETERNALS earned almost exactly the same as the $75.4M earned by SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS on its opening weekend. The big difference being that the SHANG-CHI debut was celebrated as a huge victory. 

Now, at The Quorum, we pointed out just last week that ETERNALS was on pace to match the opening for SHANG-CHI. As you can see above, the two films had nearly identical grosses on Friday and Saturday of their opening frame. The only reason SHANG-CHI made more on Sunday is that it opened on Labor Day weekend, meaning more people went to the theater on Sunday night, with Monday being a holiday.

Just to remind you, here are the numbers for the two films according to The Quorum. SHANG-CHI opened with an awareness of 43% versus 41% for ETERNALS. Slight advantage: SHANG-CHI.

On the interest side, ETERNALS opened with an interest score of 5.7 versus 5.6 for SHANG-CHI. Slight advantage: ETERNALS.

Despite the fact that the tracking was spot on, it’s fair to ask why one opening was celebrated while the other was considered a disappointment?