Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has surpassed another MCU film, Black Widow, to become the highest grossing movie in the US during the pandemic era.

　　Shang-Chi has now made $196.5 million in the US, which is ahead of Black Widow's $183.6 million. Internationally, it's a different story, with Black Widow ($378.4 million) pacing ahead of Shang-Chi ($363.4 million). Both Marvel films would have no doubt generated substantially larger box office results in North America and globally in pre-pandemic times. Both movies were obliterated by the success of F9, which has made $716 million globally (but only $173 million in the US).

　　Comparing Shang-Chi and Black Widow isn't totally fair, however, as Black Widow was also released on Disney+ with Premier Access at launch, while Shang-Chi was not. This release strategy surely impacted box office results one way or the other for Black Widow (and it's also led to a messy lawsuit between Scarlett Johnasson and Disney).

　　For Shang-Chi, Disney CEO Bob Chapek called its theater-only release strategy an "experiment" of sorts, which star Simu Liu criticized. After Shang-Chi's huge success at the box office, Liu used a great photo from his time as a stock image model to respond to the news.

　　Shang-Chi's strong box office results are a sign that people are willing and eager to return to cinemas during the pandemic, even if attendance and revenue is down overall compared to pre-COVID times. The next big temperature check for the theatrical movie experience will be the James Bond film No Time To Die, which opens in the UK on September 30 and in the US on October 8.

　　For more, check out GameSpot's Shang-Chi review and our feature, "Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings Ending Explained: What Does It Mean For Phase 4?"