Shang-Chi, Free Guy Will Be Exclusive To Theaters For 45 Days

While Disney has been flexible about its release options so far this year, they will release Shang-Chi and Free Guy exclusively in theaters. Disney CEO Bob Chapek has announced (per Variety) that the two films will open exclusively in theaters and will stay there for 45 days before heading to streaming.

While the move does guarantee that the films will be carried in theaters alone — a boost to the theater industry — the 45 day window more less officially kills the previous window of 90 days that used to be in place before films moved to home viewing.

Free Guy stars Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, Taika Waititi, and Utkarsh Ambudkar and is directed by Shawn Levy. It opens on August 13th and follows Guy, a lonely bank teller who discovers he is actually a background character in an open-world video game entitled Free City and works to prevent the makers of the game from shutting it down with the help of an avatar.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings opens on September 3rd and stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who must confront the past he thought he left behind when he is drawn into the web of the mysterious Ten Rings organization. The film also stars Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Shang-Chi’s friend Katy and Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Nan, as well as Fala Chen, Meng’er Zhang, Florian Munteanu and Ronny Chieng.