Box Office: Disney’s Delay Of Marvel’s ‘Shang-Chi’ Is Good News For ‘Mortal Kombat’ Reboot

Disney
DIS
dropped a whole bunch of new release dates on us yesterday afternoon, debunking (arguably unfounded) rumors that some of their bigger 2020 titles (namely Mulan and Black Widow) would end up bypassing theaters altogether. That was never a realistic possibility (even a disappointing theatrical total for Black Widow would be well above the likely best-case-scenario for a VOD release), but now we know for sure that (thus far) the only “straight to streaming” casualty of the coronavirus pandemic is Kenneth Branagh’s already-delayed (and commercially questionable) Artemis Fowl. The YA fantasy flick, already moved from August of last year to May 29, 2020, will now debut on Disney+
DIS
. Moreover, the MCU has been pushed back by a single release date, which may be great news for Warner Bros.’ Mortal Kombat reboot.

Cate Shortland’s Black Widow will now open on November 6, 2020, while Chloé Zhao’s Eternals will now open on February 12, 2021, which is both the Chinese New Year and President’s Day weekend, previously home to “unconventional” comic book superhero movies like Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Kingsman, Deadpool, Black Panther and Alita: Battle Angel. One might argue that Birds of Prey should have opened in that mid-February slot instead of early February, but WB had previous luck with that slot with The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie in years past. There was initially some “lightning strikes twice” karma attached to Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi opening three years to the weekend as Black Panther, even if it was as much about the Chinese holiday as presenting Shang-Chi as the proverbial “Black Panther for Asian superheroes.”

But now the Simu Liu/Tony Leung/Awkwafina/Ludi Lin/Lewis Tan/Steven Yuen/John Cho will kick off the 2021 summer movie season, opening one year before Black Panther 2 does likewise for summer 2022. What the heck does this have to do with New Line’s James Wan-produced Mortal Kombat movie? Well, if rumors are correct, and I did ask around accordingly, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will feature a plot that at least somewhat concerns a global/international martial arts tournament. I don’t want to speak out of turn for a movie that’s not even opening for another 13 months, but if Shang-Chi really does involve a superpowered martial arts competition with larger-than-life fighters engaging in a fight to the finish, that might have been annoying for the actual Mortal Kombat movie opening just a month prior.

That was my first thought when the Simon McQuoid-directed video game adaptation initially moved from March 5, 2021 to January 15, 2021. Bad Boys for Life (and arguably Glass) showed that somewhat big movies could score in the first big holiday weekend of the year, but it still felt like New Line and friends getting ahead of the MCU movie that might end up sharing certain structural and narrative similarities to the video game adaptation. Sure, we’re talking about an R-rated and allegedly over/under $45 million production versus a big-budget PG-13 action fantasy, but competition is competition. If Shang-Chi was going to be the MCU equivalent of Enter the Dragon (one of the best martial arts tournament flicks) or Akeelah and the Bee (one of the best underdog sports movies), then the genuine article had to open first.

Now that Shang-Chi has been delayed to May of 2021, then the (currently in post-production) Mortal Kombat movie will have five months to breathe instead of four weeks. Kevin Feige has made a point to emphasize specific genres in relation to MCU movies, both to let audiences know what the expect and to diversify the pictures so that none of them appear to be “just a superhero movie.” “Martial arts actioner” and “underdog sports movie” are two genres into which Marvel has yet to dip their toes. If the movie does turn out to be a loose adaptation of the 2015 “Secret Wars” arc (concerning a royal rumble that occurs every 13 years), or even just a more generic martial arts adventure, then it’ll be another example of Marvel undercutting its competition by approximating its rival studios’ franchises.

Paramount may reboot G.I. Joe, but Marvel gave us Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Sony may reboot He-Man with Noah Centineo, but Marvel gave us Thor: Ragnarok while Thor: Love and Thunder (opening February of 2022) may negate a She-Ra movie. Heck, DC Films’ Aquaman was a much better King Arthur movie than Legend of the Sword and Wonder Woman undercut the commercial viability of Alita: Battle Angel. We’ll see how much Eternals resembles Dune, and/or whether A) Eternals’ delay helps the WB epic or B) Dune ends up ditching the prime Christmas slot. Mortal Kombat, which damn well better have friendships and babalities, moved to January to get ahead of Marvel’s potentially “Mortal Kombat-ish” fantasy. Tow that the MCU appropriation has moved to summer, the genuine article can breathe a sigh of relief.