Shang-Chi packs a punch in opening weekend box office

Fists of finance: The new Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has taken in $71.4 million at the box office so far, and setting a Labor Day weekend record to boot, according to Variety.

Shang-Chi is likely to take in $83.5 million by the time the four-day holiday weekend runs its course. The previous record for the Labor Day weekend, typically a slow one for movie openers, Variety said, was $30.6 million for the 2007 edition of Halloween.

The martial arts-inspired Shang-Chi arrived in theaters just two months after Marvel’s Black Widow, which holds the pandemic-era record of $80.3 million for a three-day tally. Unlike Black Widow, which arrived in theaters and online simultaneously, Shang-Chi is starting out only in theaters and won’t be streaming on Disney Plus until October.

Disney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shang-Chi features Marvel’s first Asian lead and draws on the rich history of Asian cinema, from martial arts movies to gangster films to romance, and in particular the lush visual and emotional style of wuxia epics.  “Shang-Chi’s greatest strength is its power to surprise,” CNET’s Rich Knightwell writes in his review.

This year’s Labor Day weekend at the movies looks likely to outperform the 2019 overall box office take by 12%, according to Deadline.