Marvel's Black Widow and Shang-Chi Take Top Two Spots at Domestic Box Office

Cameron Bonomolo

09/17/2021 11:05 pm EDT

Marvel's Shang-Chi will finish the weekend ringing up the second-best domestic box office of 2021 behind Marvel's own Black Widow. Starring Simu Liu as Marvel's first Asian superhero on the big screen, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings scored $29.6 million on opening day, the third-best since the start of the pandemic, including an $8.8 million in Thursday previews — the highest since Black Widow's $13.2 million in July. The Destin Daniel Cretton-directed blockbuster shattered the Labor Day record with a four-day opening weekend of $94.67 million, far surpassing the $30.6 million of Rob Zombie's Halloween remake in 2007.

Now in its second week of release, Disney's Shang-Chi will out-earn the $160 million of Paramount's A Quiet Place: Part II by the end of Friday to become the third highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office. Gitesh Pandya of Box Office Guru projects Marvel's latest will then overtake the $172.9 million of Universal's F9: The Fast Saga by Sunday, making Shang-Chi the #2 movie domestically after 17 days. In first place is Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow with its $183 million haul from over the summer. 

The top five films of the domestic box office as of September 17, via The Numbers: 

  1. Black Widow ($183.2 million)
  2. F9: The Fast Saga ($172.9 million)
  3. A Quiet Place: Part II ($160 million)
  4. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($155.1 million)
  5. Jungle Cruise ($110.4 million) 

Worldwide, Shang-Chi stands at a total of $267.2 million. The well-received movie, which earned an A CinemaScore from opening night moviegoers and a 92%/98% critics/audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, is expected to become the first $200 million grosser domestically since Sony's Bad Boys for Life hit that milestone in March 2020. 

READ: When Will Shang-Chi Be on Disney+?

READ: ComicBook's Phase Zero Interview With Simu Liu and Destin Daniel Cretton

READ: Shang-Chi Spoiler-Free Movie Review

Starring Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng'er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, and Tony Leung, Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is now playing only in theaters.

Disclosure: ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of Paramount. Sign up for Paramount+ by clicking here.

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