While the world still might be a ways away from “back to normal,” things are definitely looking up for the film industry and hey, it’s a start, right? According to The Wrap, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings — the latest entry in Disney’s ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe — has officially set the record as the highest-grossing pandemic-era movie after raking in $200 million at the domestic box office.
Prior to Shang-Chi‘s success, the last film to surpass the $200 million mark was February 2020’s Bad Boys For Life, which released just one month before theaters were mandated to close their doors due to rising COVID-19 cases. Since then, only one another Marvel movie — the Scarlett Johansson led Black Widow — has managed to get close to the $200 million mark, bringing in $183.5 million domestically during its simultaneous box office and Disney+ release.
Disney also announced that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings performed pretty impressively in a number of other ways as well. According to the studio, the film hit the $200 million mark as it entered its fifth weekend in theaters and after taking the number one spot on the box office charts every weekend in September. The film also completely shattered the previous Labor Day weekend box-office record with a four-day opening of $94.6 million, more than triple the $30.5 million earned by Rob Zombie’s Halloween back in 2007.
While many were concerned that Disney’s choice to give Shang-Chi a strictly theatrical release would ultimately lead to a poor reception and fiscal performance for the first Asian superhero film from Marvel, turns out keeping the film’s exclusive release might have helped it out in the long run — though the choice is still pretty questionable from a health and safety standpoint. Ultimately, the film’s success, as well as the stellar performance of 20th Century Studios’ Ryan Reynold’s led movie Free Guy, has led Disney to announce all of its remaining films this year will be released exclusively in theaters, including the next MCU movie, Eternals, which hits theaters November 5.