Disney Marvel’sShang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings made a heroic showing at the box office, where it has smashed the record for Labor Day openings with a four-day haul of $90 million and has posted the second-biggest three-day debut of the pandemic year so far, behind fellow Marvel Studios pic Black Widow.
Shang-Chi, brought in a domestic three-day total of $75.5 million from 4,300 locations. Shang-Chi‘s global haul is an estimated $146.2 million.
Originally slated to hit theaters back in February, Shang-Chi proved to be worth the wait. The PG-13-rated film, which is Marvel’s first to feature an Asian superhero and be anchored by a cast and director of Asian origin, was expected to pull in between $45 and $50 million over its first weekend. But it quickly became clear that the movie—which stars Simu Liu along with Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh, and Tony Leung—would blow past those bearish projections. In fact, Shang-Chi’s projected four-day holiday weekend haul of $90 million leaves the previous Labor Day box-office record holder, 2007’s Halloween (with $30.6), well in the dust. It was just the sort of news that nervous theater owners were hoping for.
Shang-Chi audiences gave the film a straight ‘A’ CinemaScore and critics boosted the film to a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Unspooling in 4,300 locations, Marvel’s latest earned a whopping $16,604 per-screen average and added on another $56.2 million from overseas. While that may sound low it makes sense when you consider that the film still hasn’t been scheduled for release in China—one of Marvel’s biggest markets. Its one-week worldwide return is $146.2 million. With little in the way of new competition from the major studios in the next couple of weekends and the film’s theatrical exclusivity for its first 45 days, Shang-Chi should continue to pull in big bucks until at least the beginning of October.