Brace yourself: the Labor Day weekend box office record is about to be broken. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the latest from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it is the rare major film to release over the famously low-grossing holiday weekend, following in the footsteps of Tenet last year and continuing Marvel’s trend of extending the length of the summer movie season. The current record holder for the long weekend is the Halloween remake, which opened to $30.6 million in 2007. Shang-Chi should be able to top that without breaking a sweat, even though it will fall toward the lower end of openings for a Marvel film.

Shang-Chi, which is the only wide release of the weekend, takes the MCU into new territory, drawing from Asian culture and cinema and featuring a cast and director of Asian origin. The title character is a star-making role for Simu Liu,...