Marvel Studio’s Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings will land the pandemic’s second-biggest opening, following Black Widow.
Over three days, Shang-Chi pulled in $71.4 million in the domestic market, with $23.2 million of that earned on Saturday—and a global gross of $127.6 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Marvel’s Black Widow saw a debut of $80.3 million over the course of three days in July.
The four-day Labor Day Weekend will potentially bring in a total of $83.5 million, a record that Rob Zombie’s 2007 film Halloween previously held with $30.6 million over a four-day time period. Shang-Chi has also eclipsed F9: The Fast Saga, which hauled in $70 million in late June.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Shang-Chi stars Simu Liu, who is the latest addition to Marvel’s superhero roster. The film also stars Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Tony Leung, Fala Chen, and Michelle Yeoh, and is the first Marvel pic to have an Asian actor in a lead role.
“I think it would have made me feel proud of where I came from,” Liu told Complex when asked how Shang-Chi might have affected him as a kid. “I think it would have made me proud of my face, proud of my language, of my culture. And not having that meant that, you know, I kind of inherently knew that those things were ‘other.’ And those things weren’t desirable. And so, I grew up ashamed to be Asian. I just hope that kids watching this movie will be proud instead.”
Elsewhere, Nia DaCosta’s Candyman came in at No. 2 and is looking to gross $13.4 million for the four-day period with it bringing in $40.4 million in the domestic market since its late August release.
