Author: Trafficblast

This weekend saw three new wide movie releases in US cinemas, but there was a clear standout, with Ford v Ferrari outperforming expectations and comfortably topping the charts. The dramatization of Ford Motor Company’s 1966 quest to build a car capable of beating Ferrari at Le Mans ’66, which was directed by James Mangold (Logan) and stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale, brought in $31 million over the weekend according to Box Office Mojo.

This is well above Box Office Mojo’s pre-weekend projection of $22 million, and the film has earned strong reviews and excellent word of mouth, including a rare A+ Cinemascore from attendees. The movie carries a $100 million budget, but this is still a strong start (the film also made $21.4 million internationally), and there’s a good chance of the movie performing well over the weeks ahead, especially if it gets award buzz.

Charlie’s Angels got off to a considerable weaker start. The new movie, directed by Elizabeth Banks and starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska as the eponymous Angels, was third at the box office (below last week‘s Midway). It opened to $8.6 million, well below expectations, and much less than the 2000 iteration of Charlie’s Angels (which opened to $40,128,550) and its sequel, Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle ($37,634,221). It’s not all bad, though–the movie picked up $19.3 million outside of America, and was made on a fairly modest $48 million budget.

The other new wide release opening this weekend, The Good Liar, brought in $5,656,000. This is a low result, but the film was made on a budget of just $10 million. Elsewhere in the charts, Doctor Sleep dropped to 6th place with $6,181,000, meaning that it’s still on track to lose money. Joker crossed the $1 billion mark internationally, making it one of the most profitable films of all time. Terminator: Dark Fate slipped out of the top ten, earning $4,375,000, and Waves, the new film from Trey Edward Shults (It Comes At Night), opened to $144,562 on just four screens.

Here’s the domestic top ten for this weekend, or you can view the full chart at Box Office Mojo.

1. Ford v Ferrari: $31.037 million

2. Midway: $8.75 million

3. Charlie’s Angels: $8.6 million

4. Playing with Fire: $8.55 million

5. Last Christmas: $6.7 million

6. Doctor Sleep: $6.181 million

7. The Good Liar: $5.656 million

8. Joker: $5.635 million

9. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil: $5.247 million

10. Harriet: $4.780 million

Granblue Fantasy Versus, Arc System Works’s upcoming fighting game spin-off from Japanese mobile/browser RPG Granblue Fantasy, has released a new trailer to show off its soundtrack selection. The trailer samples 15 tracks from the game and shows off some concept art alongside each piece. The first 11 tracks are character-specific, indicating the opponent you’re fighting–it seems that each fighter will essentially get their own theme music. The full soundtrack will contain the complete versions of each of these tracks.

The game will release in Japan on February 6, 2020, with a global release following soon after. It’s exclusive to the PlayStation 4 for now, and the western release will feature an optional English dub. Every fighter in the game will have access to an easy-to-use “Skybound Art,” which will be based on an ability from the original RPG, which will be tied to a cooldown timer. The developer, Arc System Works, is known for its fighting games, including the upcoming Guilty Gear and the BlazBlue series.

We’ve previously looked at the game during its closed beta–you can check out an exhibition match in the video above, or take a longer look at gameplay from that beta.

The “#ReleaseTheSnyderCut” fans, who seek an official release of Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League from Warner Bros., have today received support from three of the film’s stars on the two year anniversary of the film’s cinema release. Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Ben Affleck (Batman), and Ray Fisher (Cyborg) have all tweeted today using the “#ReleaseTheSnyderCut” hashtag, indicating that they would also like the film’s original director’s final cut to be released.

The tweets from Gadot and Affleck have been retweeted by Zack Snyder himself, along with the comments “This ancient Amazonian can’t be wrong” and “Neither can Batman.” Snyder has previously thrown shade at the CGI work in the final version of Justice League, and spoken about why his version of Batman kills people. This is the first major sign we’ve gotten that Snyder himself wants to see the release of his own final cut of the film–he has previously confirmed its existence, but has not been vocal over the cut’s release.

“#ReleaseTheSnyderCut” stems from the fact that Snyder stepped away from the film’s post-production in May 2017 following a family tragedy. Joss Whedon was brought in to finish the film, which involved shooting new scenes and making some tweaks to its structure and story. Since the film’s release fans have wanted to see a version of Justice League that was entirely in line with Snyder’s plan and vision for it. At the time of release, star Ben Affleck said that the movie represented “Snyder’s DNA.”

In July 2018, Warner Bros. stated that they had no intention of releasing a Snyder cut of the movie. Snyder also directed DC movies Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and is still the sole credited director on Justice League, with Whedon receiving a screenwriting credit. Stars Henry Cavill (Superman) and Ezra Miller (The Flash) have not commented on the Snyder Cut, but Jason Momoa (Aquaman) posted the hashtag on Instagram a week ago. He has also previously claimed to have seen the cut.

Despite all of this, there’s no definitive sign that the Snyder Cut of Justice League will actually release. The film’s original release ended with a disappointing worldwide box office take of $657,924,295; by comparison, the most recent DC film, Joker, has just passed the $1 billion mark, as did Aquaman.