Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings breaks North American box office record in first weekend

Marvel Studios' first Chinese superhero movie, "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," was released in North America on September 3. It took in $29.6 million in 4,300 theaters on Friday. It is expected to take in between $75 million and $85 million in the four days of the "Labor Day period," which is certain to surpass 2007's "Halloween 9" by $30.6 million, becoming the highest-grossing movie of the period.

The film is expected to take in around $70 million over the three days of the weekend, slightly lower than the $80 million performance of "Black Widow" this year. Given the current severe epidemic situation in North America, such an opening performance has exceeded expectations. Although $70 million is not impressive in the MCU universe, it is still much higher than "The Incredible Hulk"'s $55.4 million and "Ant-Man"'s $57.2 million.

Ordinary audiences recognize Shang-Chi

There are no large-scale movies released in North America in the next two weeks. "Shang-Chi" has a Rotten Tomatoes media freshness of 93%, an audience popcorn index of 98%, a CinemaScore score of A, and an IMDb fan score of 8.1, all of which will help boost the film's total box office.

In addition, the film has earned 23.4 million US dollars in markets such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

In comparison, the performance of other Chinese-led films in North America, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon took the award season route, with a small-scale opening of $660,000 in the first weekend and eventually earned $128 million in North America. Crazy Rich Asians was a small- to medium-sized investment film, with $26.51 million in the first weekend and eventually earned $174 million in North America.

It will not be a problem for "Shang-Chi" to surpass "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in North America's final box office, and there is also hope that it will challenge "Crazy Rich Asians"'s 174 million. Although "Black Widow" has only accumulated a box office of 181 million US dollars so far, "Shang-Chi" was not released on streaming media at the same time, which will help the growth of theater box office.