After five-plus decades of moviemaking, producer is still breaking his own records. The Michigan native is one of the creators behind the modern-day concept of a crowd-pleaser, and with a résumé that includes the franchises of , and , it’s natural to assume that one of his many notable hits would boast his highest audience test score. However, that honor instead belongs to his latest film, , which opens May 31 in theaters.

Directed by his filmmaker, Joachim Rønning, tells the underdog story of ’s Gertrude “Trudy” Ederle, the largely unknown Olympic swimmer who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926. The heartwarming sports drama was originally intended to be a Disney+ exclusive, but when the record-setting test scores came in, Bruckheimer, as Rønning described it, was “relentless” in his pursuit of a theatrical release. Bruckheimer and co.

ultimately received a limited theatrical release ahead of July’s Olympic Games in Paris, the same location where Ederle won a gold medal a century ago, but he isn’t entirely sure how much the enthusiastic test screenings truly affected Disney’s decision to upgrade the film’s rollout. “It’s never easy to get a theatrical release, because they’re expensive and [Disney] really had set this for streaming,” Bruckheimer tells . “But I don’t know if the scores actually weighed into it.

I’m sure it helped, but they really loved the film and it’s certainly great for their brand. It.