The Conjuring 3 Tops The Box Office

The latest US box office figures are in, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It won the weekend with $24 million. That’s below the $25 million that was project, according to Collider, but it’s a good result as more and more people head back to the cinemas.

The Conjuring’s $24 million was the third biggest opening for a movie in the US during the pandemic, only behind A Quiet Place Part II and Godzilla vs. Kong. It’s also notable because The Conjuring becomes the fifth WB movie to open at No. 1 this year. All of WB’s movies for 2021 are releasing on HBO Max as well, but clearly people are still interested in going to the movies, which is good news for WB and for movie studios overall.

A Quiet Place Part II drops down to No. 2 this past weekend, pulling in another $19.5 million to improve its overall box office receipts to $88.6 million after two weekends in the US. A spin-off film is coming in March 2023.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the eighth entry in the Conjuring universe, and its opening weekend was the second lowest overall, only behind Annabelle Comes Home ($20.2 million). According to Deadline, the lower results might be due to franchise fatigue. But helping things is the fact that the budget was relatively low, at $40 million.

Go to Deadline to see a full rundown of this weekend’s box office results in the US.

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The Matrix 4 Adds To Its Cast With Christina Ricci

The Matrix 4 has added to its cast. Collider spotted an updated press kit from Warner Bros. that included Christina Ricci’s name.

Ricci joins a big cast that already includes Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jada Pinkett Smith reprising their characters. Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Jonathan Groff are among the newcomers.

Ricci has worked with directed Lana Wachowski before in Speed Racer.

The Matrix 4, which may not be its official title, is slated for release this December in theaters and on HBO Max. It’s the first new entry in the series since 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions.

Very little is known about the plot of The Matrix 4. Neil Patrick Harris has discussed how the movie felt “intimate” to film despite being such a massive production.

“You’d film pages at a time in 30 minutes and then be done… You would think that a giant movie would be 100% storyboarded, animatics, and we’d be checking off shots,” he said. “I think she lived that before three times over, and I would suspect that she wants to do things her own way now. It wasn’t often that you felt that you were doing something gigantic because she made it feel very intimate.”

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A Quiet Place Spinoff Lands 2023 Release Date With A New Director

Following the success of A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place 2, Paramount is moving ahead with a third movie in 2023. The new film is a spin-off that is written and directed by Jeff Nichols, who previously directed Mud and Midnight Special. It’s releasing March 31, 2023.

There were reports that the March 2023 date applied to A Quiet Place 3, but this is apparently not true. Whether or not a third entry in the main series is made remains to be seen. John Krasinski directed the first two films.

While Krasinski is not directing the Quiet Place spin-off, the story is based on an idea of his, according to Variety, though Nichols wrote the script. Additionally, Krasinski is attached as a producer, so he remains involved in the series.

As for Nichols, he wrote and directed the 2012 Matthew McConaughey/Reese Witherspoon movie Mud, and he followed it up with Midnight Special in 2016 starring Adam Driver, Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, and Kirsten Dunst.

A Quiet Place 2 made another $19.5 million this weekend in the US to improve its total domestic box office haul to $88.6 million, according to Deadline.

GameSpot’s A Quiet Place II review scored the film an 8/10.

“A Quiet Place Part II is the best kind of horror sequel–one that honors the elements that made the first so successful, but instead of simply repeating the formula, finds new ways to keep the story fresh and the scares effective,” reviewer Dan Auty said.

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No Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time Remake News During Ubisoft Forward At E3 2021

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake is one of Ubisoft’s most exciting upcoming games, but it won’t be seen at the Ubisoft Forward event this coming weekend.

The development team said in a social media post that “we are not ready to share any additional information just yet,” though the game is making good progress, the studio said.

This update came after Ubisoft delayed the remake indefinitely earlier this year. The game was originally slated to arrive in January 2021 before being delayed to March and then pushed again. In the new statement about Ubisoft Forward, the developers thanked fans for their patience and understanding about the latest developments about the remake.

In addition to the overhauled visuals, game director Pierre-Sylvain Gires says camera and combat have been improved in the remake. In particular, the developers have added a targeting system to the game, which according to Gires “enhanced the velocity of the Prince and his abilities to do amazing moves.”

When it is released, the remake will come to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game will retail for $40 USD and includes the original 1989 Prince of Persia as an unlockable bonus.

As for what Ubisoft will showcase at Ubisoft Forward on June 12, you can likely expect some new footage or updates on Far Cry 6. Other Ubisoft games slated for release in 2021 include Riders Republic and the roller derby game Roller Champions, as is the game formerly known as Rainbow Six Quarantine, so updates on those titles are expected.

For more, check out GameSpot’s Ubisoft Forward schedule to find out how to watch and what to expect.

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Loki Disney Plus Show Video Highlights Owen Wilson’s Agent Mobius

Ahead of its premiere this Wednesday, June 9, Marvel Studios has released a new teaser for the Disney+ TV show Loki that focuses on Owen Wilson’s character, Agent Mobius.

Mobius works for the Time Variance Authority, which is the group responsible for managing the timelines of the universe. As we know from the Avengers movies, Loki screwed things up when he stole the Tesseract, which is why he’s now imprisoned at the TVA. However, Mobius cuts a deal with Loki and they work together to fix the timelines and put things back in order.

The new behind-the-scenes featurette gives us a little more context and perspective on the relationship between Loki and Mobius, and Wilson and Tom Hiddleston. Wilson’s trademark wit is on full display in this video, as he cracks jokes about being offered Iron Man, Captain America, and Hulk and only just now agreeing to appear in the MCU.

The video also touches on how Hiddleston led what were referred to as “Loki Lectures” when the actor schooled Wilson and company on his thoughts about Loki and the character’s journey across the MCU. Wilson said he wrote down some of what Hiddleston said, and some of this made it into the dialogue you’ll hear in the show. Check out the video below.

In other news about Loki, Marvel teamed up with General Mills to create a special new cereal called Loki Charms–here’s how to get your own box.

Loki premieres on Disney+ starting June 9. Episodes will air on Wednesdays, which is a change from WandaVision. For lots more on Loki, check out GameSpot’s primer, “How To Watch Loki On Disney Plus: Release Date, Number Of Episodes, And More.”

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Dying Light’s Hellraid DLC Is Getting a Story Mode

The slightly confusing story of Hellraid continues: what was once a standalone game then became Dying Light DLC – and now that DLC is getting a story mode.

2015’s Dying Light received a dark fantasy DLC expansion last year called Dying Light: Hellraid. Today, a free update is expanding upon the expansion, adding a Story Mode and new weapons.

Launching on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One today, ‘The Prisoner’ update will send players “deep into the demon-infested bowels of Ba’al’s Temple to rescue Lucius, a mysterious and powerful mage”. Don’t adjust your monitors, this is still Dying Light we’re talking about, the Hellraid expansion just sports a medieval theme, with skeletons, swords and armour aplenty.

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Beyond the story missions, The Prisoner also adds two new weapons to the game. Hellraid’s first ranged weapon, a bow called Corrupted Justice, and a two-handed hammer called Bonecruncher. You’ll need them too, as the update will add new locations and shield-toting skeletons who will demand a “fresh offensive strategy” from players.

The expansion’s lighting system is also being tweaked, as well as the environmental sound system to up the atmosphere when you’re dungeon crawling. You can check out the full patch notes on Dying Light’s Steam community page.

It’s part of a slightly confusing story for Hellraid, which began life as a full standalone game, before being put on hold, and turned into DLC for a whole different game. It remains unclear whether the full standalone version of Hellraid is still planned at Techland, or if this story mode represents what it’s now become.

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We reviewed Dying Light back in 2015, scoring it an 8.5 and calling it “a blast, even if the story’s just okay”. Techland’s sequel Dying Light 2 recently changed its title to Dying Light 2 Stay Human and confirmed a release date of December 7, 2021.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Dying Light: Hellraid DLC Gets Story Mode In New Update

Techland is finally delivering a more complete Hellraid experience, just not how you would expect. The currently on-hold game from Techland was revived in Dying Light last year as a piece of DLC, and as of today, has been updated to include a full-on story mode.

Previously, the Hellraid DLC for Dying Light would let players escape out of the game’s zombie-infested world through an arcade cabinet. They would be teleported into a fantasy world, and instead of bashing up zombies, they could beat the bones off of some walking skeletons and other undead ghouls. However, it was all rather directionless, simply putting players through a dungeon of enemies.

A new update today for the DLC specifically changes that. An all-new story mode has been added to the piece of extra content, along with new weapons, zones, and a suite of visual improvements.

The story mode for Dying Light Hellraid will task players with saving a mage from Ba’al’s Temple. Who they are and what they’re doing there is for players to find out. If you don’t have the Hellraid DLC for Dying Light, it’s currently on sale on Steam for $7. On both the Microsoft Store and PlayStation Store, the DLC costs its full price of $10.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human is also just over the horizon, with a stream last month announcing a release date for the game. The Dying Light sequel is set to come out on December 7 and will feature a changing world based on player choices.

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Fortnite Season 7 Teasers Include Superman, Rick And Morty, And More

Fortnite Season 7 is merely hours away, and Epic Games is teasing what players can expect to find in the latest season. From Rick and Morty, to a missing-in-action Jonesy, to even an apparent Superman tease, Epic’s next season of Fortnite looks to be just as massive as ever, with aliens descending on the island to cause chaos and alter the landscape of the popular game once more.

Epic has been slow-rolling the release of brief and cryptic teasers for a few days. The first one appeared over the weekend and does not immediately point to any known characters from outside the Fortnite fiction, though it does suggest Agent Jones, the Troy Baker-voiced main character of the game’s expansive lore, is now missing in action. His face appears on the side of a milk carton with the words “MISSING” just like the old days.

The text description with the teaser seems to come from the aliens themselves, which have recently been abducting players at the end of Season 6:

“Catalog Entry #437-887. The creatures of the Island seem to use this strange, flimsy holding device to consume their… bone modification liquid? Fascinating indeed.”

Since then, two more similar teasers have arrived, both pointing to licensed crossovers with some massive properties, which lately has been the focus of Fortnite’s Item Shop and Battle Passes.

Superman

The first seems to suggest DC’s foremost superhero, Superman, will be making his way to Apollo. Along a video featuring objects like a new sci-fi weapon and a guitar (likely unrelated Bling Bling), a pair of glasses comes with a jokey caption. “When placed onto the face this strange plastic device seemed to make us appear as unrecognizable.”

It would make a lot of sense for Superman to arrive in Fortnite. The past few months have been especially DC-heavy thanks in part to the ongoing Batman tie-in comic. He would join others such as the Teen Titans Beast Boy and Raven, Harley Quinn, and even Green Arrow, who arrived by way of the Fortnite Crew subscription in January.

Rick and Morty

Because one huge collaboration is never enough for Fortnite, it seems Rick and Morty will be coming to the game in some fashion. The third and final teaser for Fortnite Season 7 arrived today and in no uncertain terms includes the existential dread-filled butter robot.

As the season looks primed to focus largely on aliens and adjacent science fiction concepts, a Rick and Morty collaboration is, in hindsight, one we should’ve seen coming when we wrote about possible tie-ins we want to see in the game. We’re still holding out for Agents Scully and Mulder though.

It’s the final day of Fortnite Season 6. Be sure to close out your last few Week 12 challenges. Tomorrow, we’ll be bringing you a full rundown of Fortnite Season 7, including the map changes, a Battle Pass overview, and guides on any other new elements Epic adds to the game for its season of invasion.

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Forza Motorsport’s Handling Will Be A “Huge Generational Leap” For The Franchise

According to Forza Motorsport creative director Chris Esaki, the next game in the series will deliver a “huge generational leap” in terms of the foundational driving gameplay for the series.

“I’m a core gameplay guy, a core mechanics guy, and I really think about all the things that we do–the rubber meets the road and that sort of thing–as core gameplay and essentially we’re building on this solid foundation of our Forza feel that our players know and love and just making it that much better,” Esaki explained in the latest episode of Forza Monthly via VGC.

Now Playing: Forza Motorsport Reveal Trailer | Xbox Games Showcase 2020

Esaki added that the difference in gameplay will be greater than all the changes made from Forza Motorsport 4 and though to Forza Motorsport 7. One of the bigger changes is in the tire collision model, which traditionally has only had one point of contact with the road and refreshed itself at 60Hz. For the next Forza Motorsport, there will be eight points of contact with the track that will run at 360Hz.

“So if you’re doing the math there, it’s a 48x fidelity jump in a single tire collision itself so there’s just a huge amount of work there that has just really paid off for us,” Esaki said. “This goes to all the feedback we’ve got from this last playtest, you can really feel the track surface a lot more, there’s a lot more communication to the player and the feeling of the tires on the track is really insane.”

Esaki also mentioned that curbs had been dramatically changed from the usual coarse or unsettling feeling that had been prevalent in previous games, and now feel more smooth and natural while allowing tires to feel “the undulations” in each part of the road. On the brand recognition side of the game’s development, Esaki also confirmed that the next entry in the series won’t feature a sequential 8 at the end of its title, and will be a new start for the series.

“It really is an all-new Forza Motorsport experience,” Esaki concluded.

Little else is known about the next Forza, aside from it having recently wrapped up a beta test and has scheduled another one for this summer. If Microsoft is ready to reveal some new details on its signature racing game series though, its joint briefing with Bethesda on June 13 will be as good a place as any to show off all those handling improvements.

For more on that event and other conferences around it, don’t forget to check out our E3 2021 hub for the full schedule.

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Wedding Crashers 2: Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn Reportedly in Early Talks to Return

Wedding Crashers 2 isn’t officially in the works yet, but it sounds like some of the cast might be considering tying the knot with the prospective sequel.

According to Collider, Wedding Crashers 2 hasn’t officially been given the green light by New Line, but Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn have reportedly taken a seat at the table to enter into “early discussions” to reprise their roles as divorce mediators John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey, the headliners of the original 2005 rom-com, which grossed $285 million worldwide on a $40 million budget.

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While no deals have been finalized yet, sources say there is a script for the sequel that has been universally well-received, and that filmmaker David Dobkin, who helmed the first movie, has already started to scout locations and venues in the event that New Line pops the question and he signs on to direct a Wedding Crashers sequel, 16 years after the first premiered in theaters.

Rumors of a sequel have been circulating for years, with Vaughn revealing in November that talks were becoming more serious. “Owen and I and the director of Crashers have been talking for the first time seriously [about] a sequel to that movie,” Vaughn told Entertainment Tonight.  “So, there has been an idea that is pretty good. So, we are talking about that in the early stages.”

Hopefully, the duo will be able to “save the date” for the potential sequel before their respective calendars get booked up. Vaughn will next be seen on screen in Queenpins, a crime comedy inspired by the true story of the largest coupon counterfeit scam in US history, while Wilson will be taking to the small screen for Marvel’s Loki, which debuts on Disney+ this week.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.