Who would have thought the two biggest Chinese stars in Hollywood would do well in China, right? Well, they’re off to a good start, but nothing amazing. The Jackie Chan and Jet Li fantasy made $2.3 million in its first day at the Chinese box office.

Nothing amazing for Hollywood standards I must say, since it was the biggest opening in China this year. Still, it only topped the $15 million Yuan opening by the Chinese movie ‘Warlords’ by $1 million Yuan. “It is reasonable to assume box office income will top 100 million in [its] first week,” said the vice president of the Shanghai United Cinema Line.

Their fellow Asians liked ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ too, taking the number one spot in Korea with $2.6 million in its first weekend. Especially good if you consider the Korean box office isn’t doing that well these days.

The game isn’t over yet, but ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ already scored one point this Friday, doing an estimated $7.6 million at 3,151 theaters — that’s $2,400 per screen.

‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ wasn’t far behind, with $5.9 million at 2,798 screens. But if we do the math, we see it’s already doing less per screen. $2100 to be exact.

It still did a lot better than Al Pacino though. His ‘88 Minutes’ only did $2.3 million for the day. But nobody wasn’t expecting that one to do big numbers anyway. Too bad for its $30 million budget.

[update]
The fight has been fought, it’s over. ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ just won the weekend with an estimated $20.9 million. ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ still managed to make a respectable $17.3 million. Both exceeded most expectations.

Last week’s number one, ‘Prom Night,’ came in third with $9.1 million, making for a total of $32.6 million in the first 10 days.

With its $30 million budget ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ was expected to be an easy sell, but the comedy is now expected to do anywhere between $10-$30 million this weekend. The movie is produced by Judd Apatow, responsible for the failure of ‘Drillbit Taylor’, but also for the success of ‘Superbad’ and ‘Knocked up’.

The ‘crude comedy’ has to battle ‘The Forbidden Kingdom,’ with Jackie Chan and Jet Li, which is expected to have a good opening as well. Produced by Weinstein’s Asian branch, ‘The Forbidden Kingdom’ is opening in 3,151 theaters, while ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ will only do 2,798. That’s already a 12.5% bigger chance for a better opening by the Asian guys.