Avengers: Endgame Box Office Record Shattered by Detective Chinatown 3

Surprisingly enough, the reign of Avengers: Endgame has come to an end in at least one box office category. Now that cinemas are bouncing back in China, Detective Chinatown 3 has dethroned the Marvel Studios feature as king of the biggest weekend ever in a single market. With box office returns continuing to come in, the Chinese feature is on track to gross $397 million in China during its opening weekend, a sum that dwarfs Endgame’s North American haul of $357M in 2019. Detective Chinatown 3 had previously broken Endgame’s record for the highest gross in a single day in a single market.

The buddy comedy, directed by Chen Sicheng, was shot entirely in IMAX. It also set the record for the best opening weekend for an IMAX film in China, grossing $23.5M in IMAX theaters.

Naturally, the returns are likely to make Hollywood more at ease as vaccines continue to be distributed in the United States. According to healthy officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci, “virtually everybody” who wants the COVID vaccine could get the vaccine by April, meaning that in a perfect world, most cinemas would be reopened stateside for a full summer blockbuster season.

Interestingly enough, this past week Disney CEO Bob Chapek admitted the company was still closely monitoring the situation at the box office before making a final decision on what to do with the release of Black Widow. As of Thursday, it was still the Mouse’s plan to release Black Widow solely in theaters compared to a hybrid release both on Disney+ and in cinemas on the same day.

“I’m very much looking forward to being in Black Widow if we ever are able to release that movie,” Black Widow star David Harbour previously said in an interview last year. “I would love to be able to watch that movie too – y’know I have not seen that movie. I have seen some stuff in ADR and it looks really good. And also I was there when we were shooting it and I’m really excited about it. But I would like to see it myself. H—, I would watch it on Disney+.”

Avengers: Endgame is now streaming on Disney+.

Where would you place Endgame in your overall rankings of the MCU? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!