New Delhi, July 13 -- HONG KONG - Stephen Chow walked away from the director's chair seven years ago and left the Chinese film industry to wonder whether he would return. He answered this weekend, and the answer was $73.6 million in two days.

Kung Fu Soccer, a spiritual successor to Chow's 2001 cult classic Shaolin Soccer, opened on Saturday to an estimated $38.3 million in China, then added another $35.3 million on Sunday. The two-day total of RMB 500.3 million, roughly $73.6 million, accounted for nearly 75 percent of all ticket sales across the country's entire domestic market over the weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film's next closest competitor, Minions & Monsters in its second weekend, earned $8.1 million.

Where...