Top 10 Highest Grossing Films Featuring Asian and Asian American Casts

AD Staff
Sep 11
4 min read

Asians and Asian Americans have worked hard to carve out space in Hollywood, and the box office numbers show that U.S. audiences are here for it. Beyond the dollar signs, each of these films signify a milestone in representation, storytelling, and cultural resonance. Here’s a look at the top-grossing films featuring Asian and Asian American talent, plus why they’re so significant and continue to resonate with American viewers today.

10. The Farewell (2019) – $25.5M Lulu Wang’s tender family drama followed Awkwafina’s character returning to China for a fake wedding meant to hide her grandmother’s terminal illness. The bilingual storytelling hook struck a personal chord to anyone navigating the immigrant experience. Awkwafina won a Golden Globe for her performance, the first for an Asian American woman in a lead film category, and Wang instantly became one of Hollywood’s most buzzed-about new directors.

9. The Joy Luck Club (1993) – $32.9M

Based on Amy Tan’s bestselling novel, this ensemble drama followed four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters. Yes, it was raw, emotional, and revolutionary. But it was also the first major Hollywood movie with an all-Asian cast. While a $32 million box office haul seems pretty modest today, the cultural impact the film made was seismic. For 25 years, it practically stood alone as a rare example of Asian American family life on screen until Crazy Rich Asians picked up the torch in 2018. The film has its fair share of detractors today. Some would argue that certain scenes and characterizations haven’t aged well, but few would deny it’s significance as one of the first movies to depict the Asian American experience on film.

8. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) – $145M Um, Michelle Yeoh as a laundromat owner who suddenly has to save the multiverse? Sign me up. Equal parts absurd comedy, kung fu action, and family drama, it became A24’s highest-grossing film and swept the Oscars. Yeoh made Academy Award history as the first Asian woman to win in the Best Actress category, Ke Huy Quan returned to Hollywood with an Oscar in hand, and Stephanie Hsu broke out as the next big star. The Daniels didn’t just make a film. They created a cultural moment. (Raccaccoonie, anyone?)

7. Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) – $161.5M Adapted from Arthur Golden’s bestselling novel, this lavish drama followed a girl sold into servitude who rose to become Japan’s most celebrated geisha. Casting Chinese actors in Japanese roles sparked a fair amount of controversy, but despite this, it was rare to see Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li, and Zhang Ziyi fronting a Hollywood prestige film. For better and worse, it revealed both Hollywood’s hunger for Asian stories and its blind spots about authenticity.

6. Hero (2002) – $177.4M Jet Li as a mysterious warrior, jaw-dropping visuals, and a story that played with truth and loyalty. Hero was already a smash in China, but when Quentin Tarantino helped push it into U.S. theaters, it crossed over in a big way. The film’s global success showed studios that Asian epics weren’t just export material. They could become worldwide sensations.

5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) – $213.9M Ang Lee’s martial arts masterpiece gave the world wire-fu magic, sweeping romance, and fights that felt like poetry. With an impressive 10 Oscar nominations (and four wins), it became the highest-grossing foreign-language film in U.S. history. For Asian Americans, it offered more. Validation. A subtitled film could dominate theaters and awards season on merit, and without compromise.

4. Crazy Rich Asians (2018) – $239M Constance Wu as Rachel Chu. Henry Golding as the dreamy Nick Young. Singapore looking like a fever dream of wealth and glamour. Crazy Rich Asians was the rom-com Hollywood had been missing, and audiences couldn’t get enough. It was the first major studio film release in 25 years with an all-Asian cast, and it blew up at the box office. Overnight, studios realized Asian Americans weren’t just side characters. They could headline, sparkle, and fill seats. Let's not forget the bajillion more books in this series that are ripe for filming!

3. Parasite (2019) – $258.1M A poor Korean family subverts its way into a wealthy household, and then everything spirals out from there. Parasite was smart, shocking, and just impossible to ignore. It became the first non-English film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. For Hollywood, it shattered a long-standing language barrier. For the rest of us, it proved Asian storytelling wasn’t “niche”. It was for everyone.

2. Mulan (1998) – $304.3M Disney took a Chinese legend and turned it into an animated classic. Ming-Na Wen voiced the fearless heroine, with Lea Salonga’s vocals bringing the songs to life. For Asian American kids in the ’90s, Mulan wasn’t just another princess. She was proof that courage and honor didn’t have to wear a ballgown. For Disney, it showed how a studio could look beyond the usual European fairy tales for inspiration.

1. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) – $432.2M Marvel’s first Asian superhero flick had Simu Liu stepping into the role of Shang-Chi, a son caught between his family’s shadowy empire and his own destiny. Released during the Covid pandemic, the movie defied expectations of a subdued box office with a record-breaking Labor Day weekend. For Marvel, it was history: an Asian lead fronting a billion-dollar franchise. For Asian Americans, it was the joy of finally seeing ourselves in the center of the superhero universe. So, where's the sequel already?