News of the Week - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Dominates Opening Weekend

We’re speeding through November, which means Thanksgiving is just around the corner. The weather has grown colder and holiday decorations are out as Hollywood gears up for the big holiday movie season. This week brings news of Black Panther crushing the competition, Princess Mia’s return, Andrew Garfield opening up about Spider-Man again, and more.

As always, Atom Insider brings you a few hand-picked stories we think you’ll like. Ready? Let’s dive in.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Beats Out All Competition

There was little risk that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever wouldn’t have a huge opening weekend, but even so, it more than hit expectations. By the end of Sunday on its opening weekend, Wakanda Forever jumped to a $330 million opening, with $180 million domestic and $150 million overseas. That’s good for the third-highest opening of any pandemic-era movie (all three belong to Marvel), and the second-biggest opening of the year so far, coming in only behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which had a $450 million opening. Those numbers are especially impressive considering Black Panther: Wakanda Forever didn’t open in China, and there is no confirmation that it ever will. The first Black Panther movie scored $108 million there on opening weekend. Wakanda Forever has virtually no competition until a month from now when Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters, so it has a lot of runway to add to its total before it bows in theaters.

Get tickets to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The Princess Diaries 3 Is Reportedly In Development

Here’s some fun news for people of a certain age: The Princess Diaries 3 is reportedly in development. According to THR, Aadrita Mukerji (Reacher, Quantum Leap) is penning a script for Disney’s threequel. It’s being fashioned as a continuation of the Anne Hathaway series rather than a new reboot. Hathaway herself, however, has not yet signed onto the project, but the hope is that if the project develops past the script stage, she’ll be on board. This seems likely, considering her public support for a third movie.

Hathaway’s big break in Hollywood came courtesy of playing the titular princess in 2001’s original The Princess Diaries. She starred as the awkward San Francisco teenager, Mia, who discovers she’s actually the heir to the throne of the fictional European kingdom of Genovia. Her Pygmalion-like transformation is overseen by her grandmother, the queen of Genovia, played by Julie Andrews. The first movie earned $165.3 million globally on a $26 million budget, and the 2004 sequel, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement earned $134.7 million on a $40 million budget. It’s also become firmly cemented in pop culture, and there has been demand for a third movie for years. If Disney execs like what they see with Mukerji’s script, The Princess Diaries 3 will certainly move full steam ahead.

Ant-Man 3 Star Jonathan Majors Shares Hilarious Story About His Childhood Batman Obsession

He may be the next MCU big bad now, but when he was a kid, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania villain Jonathan Majors was Team DC all the way. Specifically, he was Team Batman. While on The Late Late Show with James Corden to promote his new war drama, Devotion, Majors shared a hilarious anecdote about his obsession with Batman when he was a kid. It was an obsession that almost led to him killing himself–and his mom almost killing him immediately after.

“It was a big thing. I was about six years old. My mother made me a Batman-themed birthday party, in which my brilliant mother made me a Batman suit with the cape and the muscles. The whole thing was wicked. Because my birthday is in September, I thought ‘Okay, October is here. I’m gonna keep it on for Halloween,’ or as we call it in my house, Hallelujah Night…Time goes on, I don’t take this thing off. Maybe nine months later, my mom’s driving. I got my cape on. That’s the only thing left. The muscles have come off. I got my cape on, and we’re driving up the street. I say ‘Mom, I’m gonna do it.’ She says ‘J, what are you doing, J-boo? What you gonna do?’ ‘Mom, watch this I can do it. I’m Batman.’ You always see Batman jump out of the car, he rolls, and he lands. So she is like. ‘J, stay in the car.’ I see the house. I go, ‘This is my time. This is it. This is it. Action.’ I open the door, throw myself out, roll, roll, roll, and I land. My mom is screaming her head off, going, ‘Boy, what the hell are you doing?’ I stand up. I go, ‘Momma! Momma! Momma!’ And she beats my ass. But at six years old, I learned for a fact that I can do my own stunts.”

Six-year-old Jonathan may not be playing Batman, but he’d be excited to know he’s playing one of the biggest and most powerful characters in Marvel’s pantheon. Majors will next be seen as Kang when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania hits theaters next March. Right now, you can catch him in theaters in Devotion.

Get tickets to Devotion.

Stranger Things Breakout Star Joseph Quinn In Talks To Join A Quiet Place: Day One

Joseph Quinn has a lot of shine on him right now thanks to his breakout, star-making turn as Eddie Munson in Stranger Things season 4. Thanks to the buzz his excellent turn as the guitar-playing Dungeon Master, Quinn has a few potential projects lined up. One of those is apparently A Quiet Place: Day One, with Deadline reporting that he’s currently in talks to sign on for the starring role. If he does, he’ll co-star opposite Lupita Nyong’o, who signed on just a few weeks ago.

Virtually nothing is known of the story save that it’s being planned as a spinoff movie, not a continuation of the first two. It’s based on a story by John Krasinski, though it’s unlikely he or Emily Blunt will be reprising their roles from the first two movies. The spinoff will be helmed by Michael Sarnoski, who earned acclaim for last year’s brilliant Pig, starring Nicolas Cage. There’s plenty of time to hash out the final details, however: A Quiet Place: Day One isn’t set to hit theaters until March 8, 2024.

Ted Lasso Star Joins Ryan Gosling’s Upcoming Action Flick The Fall Guy

There are few recent Hollywood success stories as great as Hannah Waddingham’s. The multitalented Broadway star found it impossible to break into Hollywood as an older actress and was genuinely considering quitting before she landed the pitch-perfect role of Rebecca Welton in the hit series Ted Lasso. Since then, she’s won multiple awards and landed more projects, and the next might be her biggest one yet. THR broke the news that she’s just boarded Ryan Gosling’s upcoming action flick, The Fall Guy. She joins an already stacked cast that includes Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Stephanie Hsu and Winston Duke, along with Gosling, with David Leitch set to direct.

The movie is inspired by the 1980s TV series of the same name starring Lee Majors. Majors starred as a stuntman with a side gig as a bounty hunter. In a twist, the movie will see Gosling as a past his prime Hollywood stuntman, who got usurped by a younger stuntman. When he finds himself on a movie doubling the very actor who stole his thunder, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, things get messy when the star actor disappears. Waddingham is set to play the producer of the movie. It’s not yet certain when The Fall Guy will hit theaters, but it’s currently filming in Australia so a 2023 release isn’t out of the question.

Andrew Garfield Continues To Gush About His Time On Spider-Man: No Way Home

Though they were kept from the press tour for Spider-Man: No Way Home, once the cat was out of the bag about Andrew Garfield’s and Tobey Maguire’s returns to the Spider-suit, the pair have been more than happy to open up about their experiences filming the MCU movie. From all accounts, the two actors and Tom Holland had a blast on the third MCU Spider-Man movie. In his recent interview with GQ, Garfield continued to enthusiastically talk about the feeling on set and what it was like to act with the other two Spider-Men. Of the three of them, it seemed like Garfield had the most fun. His Peter Parker’s giddy excitement at having allies in other Spider-Men was palpable on screen, and none of that was faked.

“Doing [No Way Home] was really just kind of beautiful. I got to treat it like a short film about Spider-Man with buddies. The pressure was off of me. It was all on Tom’s shoulders. Like, it’s his trilogy. And me and Tobey were there to provide support and have as good a time as possible, actually, and be as inventive, imaginative, and kind of dumb as possible. Y’know, between the three of us, I was like, Oh shit, this is going to be interesting. You have three people who feel real ownership over this character. But it was really, like, brotherhood first, I think. And I think that comes through in what we shot.”

At the moment, it’s unknown whether or not his version of Spider-Man or Maguire’s will ever return to the MCU. However, with the overwhelming outpouring of love from audiences, and their fantastic chemistry together, Marvel and Sony would be remiss to not have them return in some way, whether for the MCU’s Avengers: Secret Wars, or in the Sony Spider-Man universe. Fingers crossed we haven’t seen the last of the wall-crawling trio yet.