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Theater owners got down on their knees and thanked the movie gods this weekend for the arrival of Marvel’s newest superhero extravaganza over the usually sleepy Labor Day frame. Disney’s latest entry in the MCU, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, blew past industry predictions and bowed to a Marvel-ous $71.4 million over the first three days of the long holiday weekend, making it the second-highest grossing film of the COVID era, just behind Black Widow’s $80.3 million back in July. Unlike that film, however, the Asian-themed Shang-Chi is playing exclusively in theaters and should thus prove to have longer legs than Scarlett Johansson & Co.’s epic, which simultaneously rolled out on Disney Plus.

Brace yourself: the Labor Day weekend box office record is about to be broken. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is the latest from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it is the rare major film to release over the famously low-grossing holiday weekend, following in the footsteps of Tenet last year and continuing Marvel’s trend of extending the length of the summer movie season. The current record holder for the long weekend is the Halloween remake, which opened to $30.6 million in 2007. Shang-Chi should be able to top that without breaking a sweat, even though it will fall toward the lower end of openings for a Marvel film.

Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew, cover it with blood and a bone-chilling scream or two? Candyman can. Twenty-nine years after first being summoned on the big screen in 1992’s horror classic, Universal’s sequel to the now-infamous urban legend scared up an impressive $22.3 million debut at the North American box office, far exceeding expectations and easily sinking its hooks into the top spot.

Last weekend showed us that despite rising Covid cases, audiences are willing to come to the movies if there is something they want to see. The newcomers of last week mostly flopped while Free Guy held strong. It was down only 34.8% in its second weekend, making it the best hold of the summer--in a season with sharper than usual drops--and cementing its status as one of the summer’s biggest surprise hits. While many predicted that the Delta variant’s surge would scare off audiences, it is clear that the audience will show up for the right content, and Marvel’s Shang-Chi should give the box office the shot in the arm that it needs next weekend. Until then, this weekend’s sole wide release newcomer, Candyman from Universal, is vying to be the next modest Covid-era success.

Despite a handful of splashy, star-studded new releases, Ryan Reynolds’ two-week-old action comedy, Free Guy, held the top spot over the weekend. The irreverent crowd-pleaser from 20th Century Studios and Disney pulled in $18.8 million in its sophomore frame, making it one of the summer’s most encouraging sleeper hits. Nipping at the heels of Reynolds & Co. with a $13 million second-place opening was Paramount’s PAW Patrol: The Movie —an adaptation of Nickelodeon’s kid-friendly animated TV show about a group of rescue pups whose bark at the box office turned out to be just as mighty as its bite. The rest of the frame’s newcomers, however, wound up arriving D.O.A.

The box office is looking a little brighter after last weekend’s expectations-beating, $28.4-million-opening of Free Guy. This was a pleasant surprise to those who worried the Delta variant’s continually climbing case-count would scare away audiences. Though no one would argue that we're anywhere near “normal,” the fact that we aren’t backpedaling is a positive sign. Still, studios are showing some signs of concern at the pace of recovery, as we can see from recent release date shuffling.

On a weekend that saw the arrival of three new major releases, moviegoers said “Hello, Ryan Reynolds” and “Adios, Suicide Squad” as Free Guy, the irreverent action comedy from 20th Century Studios and Disney, dominated a crowded field, landing at No. 1 at the domestic box office with a stronger-than-expected $28.4 million haul. As for last week’s champs—that ragtag band of DC Comics antiheroes? They fell off a cliff.

There are three new wide releases this weekend, but the question is whether they can pull the box office out of the downward trend it has been on. Last weekend had an overall box-office total of $65 million which, despite the opening of a big budget comic book franchise film, was the weakest overall weekend gross since June. It’s not easy to say exactly how much the resurgence of Covid-19 has impacted the box office in recent weeks, as there are other variables to factor in, from shortened or nonexistent theatrical windows, to content that perhaps isn’t quite “Must See” status, to get people out the door.

Five summers ago, the DC supervillain extravaganza Suicide Squad had a massive $133.7 opening weekend at the North American box office. Despite those eye-popping numbers, critics and audiences were left unimpressed by the film. This weekend, the complete opposite happened: critics and audiences loved its big-budget follow-up, The Suicide Squad, but its theatrical receipts were underwhelming, pulling in just $26.5 million in its debut weekend. In the age of COVID, it appears that up is down, black is white, and blockbusters just ain’t what they used to be.

August is here, and with its first weekend comes just one new wide releaseThe Suicide Squad, the follow-up to Suicide Squad, which had the biggest August opening ever ($133.7 million) in 2016 in the same frame. A lot has changed since then, and that opening is bigger than any single weekend’s combined box office total this year. While the box office does not seem to have taken a hit due to concerns over rising Covid cases in recent weeks, recovery has still been slow, and expectations are muted for the latest film in the DC Extended Universe.

After the runaway success of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, it’s surprising that it took Disney 18 years to turn another beloved theme-park ride (2015's Tomorrowland is a land, not a single ride) into a potential blockbuster movie franchise. However, after the long-awaited arrival of the studio’s splashy, E-ticket adventure Jungle Cruise, the jury is still out on whether the long wait was worth it. Yes, the family-friendly, white-water spectacle easily debuted in the top spot with a $34.2 million haul at the domestic box office (plus another $30 million from premium rentals on its Disney Plus streaming service). But considering its steep $200 million production budget and the fact that it’s top-lined by, literally, one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, Dwayne Johnson, the result can’t help but feel a little lackluster.

It’s a busy weekend at the box office, with three new wide releases: Jungle Cruise from Disney, Stillwater from Focus, and The Green Knight from A24. Jungle Cruise should have a steady lead this weekend, while the other newcomers, which offer solid counterprogramming as adult fare, will likely be in the single digits, with some of the previous weeks’ holdovers likely coming in between. With Covid-19 cases at their highest point since April and projected to keep increasing, we may see lower openings and bigger drops than expected, though the box office remains hard to predict either way.

As far as brand names go, it looks like G.I. Joe is no match for M. Night Shyamalan. Many were expecting the weekend to be won by Snake Eyes, which is essentially a reboot of the G.I. Joe series, but Old, the latest from Shyamalan, snuck past it, despite not setting the box office on fire itself. With big declines from both Black Widow and Space Jam: A New Legacy, this weekend had the lowest overall gross since before F9: The Fast Saga opened a month ago (though it’s neck and neck with July 2-4, so the actuals may change that). It is hard to say whether this is due to a lack of enticing new content to draw people in, renewed fears of Covid due to the Delta variant and rising cases, or many of the top films being available for streaming, and it is likely that all three played some role.

This week sees two new wide releases hit theaters, Snake Eyes and Old, and after last week’s expectations-smashing debut for Space Jam: A New Legacy, we feel like anything could happen at the box office. Many expect the top spot to be taken by Snake Eyes, the latest entry in the G.I. Joe franchise, but there could be an upset from Old, M. Night Shyamalan’s new supernatural mindbender, which is outrunning Snake Eyes in IMDb page views. They look like solid bets for the top two, and it should be noted that both are theatrical exclusives, but if they have sub-par performances and Space Jam holds strong, we could see the order of things shaken up. Whether or not the current uptick in Covid-19 cases impacts the box office this weekend is another open question.

Superheroes aren’t usually caught napping. Nor are box-office prognosticators. But neither party saw this weekend’s surprising slam dunk at the multiplex coming. All early projections had Marvel’s Scarlett Johansson-led tentpole, Black Widow, repeating in the top spot for a second straight weekend. But NBA legend LeBron James and a bunch of double-dribbling Looney Tunes characters spurred Warner Bros.’ family-friendly Space Jam: A New Legacy to a box-office upset thanks to a surprisingly robust $31.7 million domestic bow.

It took 25 years, but Space Jam is finally getting a sequel, while Escape Room gets a less long awaited sequel after just 2.5 years. Space Jam: A New Legacy is the week’s biggest new release, and the NBA/Looney Tunes mashup is another of Warner’s HBO Max simul-releases. Continuing with the summer’s streak of horror films is the theatrical exclusive Escape Room: Tournament of Champions from Sony. Both films are about extraordinary competitions, but they will have a hard time competing with Black Widow, which enters its second weekend.

For Disney, the wait definitely turned out to be worth it as its long-delayed Marvel tentpole Black Widow came storming out of the gate with a huge $80 million opening at the North American box office, smashing the previous pandemic-era record set by F9: The Fast Saga just three weeks ago. While the Scarlett Johansson superhero epic also cleaned up overseas, perhaps the second-biggest surprise of the weekend was that the secretive studio revealed that Black Widow tacked on another $60 million in Premier Access rentals through its Disney Plus streaming service.

It wouldn’t be a proper summer movie season without an offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and after a delay of over a year, and two years since the last MCU film, Black Widow is hitting theaters. With potential to be the summer’s biggest film, it is also a test for the box office in the pandemic recovery era, just as F9: The Fast Saga was when it opened two weeks ago. A big Marvel blockbuster may be the push many need to return to theaters, though how the film performs compared to others in the series will help let us know where we stand.

F9: The Fast Saga kept the pedal to the metal over the Fourth of July weekend and kept its pole position at the North American box office, outracing a trio of newcomers that included a sequel to The Boss Baby, the latest installment in the Purge franchise, and a buzzy indie based on an epic Twitter thread. Thanks to its continued box-office success overseas, F9 became the first Hollywood film to roar past the global $500 million mark since the pre-pandemic blockbuster Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

After months of the box office cycling between revving up and stalling out, we’ve finally seen some real summer blockbuster numbers with F9: The Fast Saga’s $70 million opening last weekend, leading the charge for an overall weekend total that came in at just under $100 million. This Fourth of July weekend looks to continue the stride, with three new wide releases, two coming from Universal, which will give the studio the top three with F9, The Boss Baby: Family Business, and The Forever Purge. With Black Widow coming next weekend and a string of big films over the next month, our box office future is starting to look much brighter.