Since the beginning of last year, only three movies have managed to cross the $200 million barrier at the domestic box office, and one of them was Bad Boys for Life, which released in the third week of January 2020 before the pandemic came along and changed the world as we knew it.
The first post-COVID release to reach the milestone was Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, with the martial arts fantasy actioner taking five weeks to do it, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster has remained the top-grossing title in the United States ever since with $225 million in the coffers.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage joined it the following month, but after just three days in release, Spider-Man: No Way Home is now the biggest hit of 2021 on home shores. The MCU’s fourth feature film to arrive since July scored a massive $253 million over the weekend, overtaking Star Wars: The Force Awakens to go third on the all-time rankings.
The fact that Spider-Man: No Way Home has taken just three days to achieve what it took Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings five weeks to accomplish just goes to show the insane levels of hype that had built around Tom Holland’s third solo outing, and it’s more than lived up to the expectations.