Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has debuted to a vibranium-strong $330 million global weekend box office victory, as it earned $180 million domestically and $150 million overseas.

As reported by Variety, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which had a $250 million production budget, broke the record for the highest November opening weekend in North American box office history by surpassing the $158 million brought in by 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever beat out Thor: Love and Thunder's $143 million domestic opening, it couldn't match the $187.3 million opening weekend of Doctor Stange in the Multiverse of Madness. That being said, second place in 2022 is no small feat. All three of these movies, however, pale in comparison to the $260 million opening of 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Speaking of comparison, the original Black Panther brought in $202 million domestically in its opening weekend. It's important to note we are living in a much different world than we were back then, as the COVID-19 pandemic is still impacting theaters and China and Russia are not as much in the picture at the moment.

No matter how you look at it, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had an incredibly strong opening weekend and the team clearly made an incredibly moving film that honored the late Chadwick Boseman. The Black Panther star who played King T'Challa passed away at the age of 43 in 2020 after a four-year battle with cancer.

In our Black Panther: Wakanda Forever review, we said that it "is at its most effective when paying tribute to its fallen king, and strong performances from the returning cast keep it afloat through its occasionally choppy plot."

Most other films chose not to battle the behemoth that is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and only one notable film, Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans, saw a limited release. Spielbergs' latest film opened in just four theaters in NYC and LA and earned $160,000. It will open wide on November 23.

After three weekends atop the box office, Black Adam placed second with domestic box office sales reaching $8.6 million. Dwayne Johnson's attempt to change the hierarchy in the DCEU has crossed $151 million domestically and $353 million worldwide. Black Adam earned $67 million in its domestic debut.

George Clooney and Julia Roberts' Ticket to Paradise took third with $6.1 million, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile placed fourth with $3.2 million, and Smile rounded out the top five with $2.3 million.

For more on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, check out our explainer of the ending and post-credits scene, nine burning questions we have after watching the latest MCU film, how Namor's past just may set up the X-Men's future, and how you can watch our live Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spoilercast.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The Walt Disney Company, in a cost-cutting move, is planning on beginning layoffs, implementing a targeted hiring freeze, and limiting company travel.

As reported by Variety, Disney CEO Bob Chapek sent out an internal memo to top executives at the company on Friday, November 11, saying these coming weeks are going to be difficult ones.

"I am fully aware this will be a difficult process for many of you and your teams," Chapek said. "We are going to have to make tough and uncomfortable decisions. But that is just what leadership requires, and I thank you in advance for stepping up during this important time. Our company has weathered many challenges during our 100-year history, and I have no doubt we will achieve our goals and create a more nimble company better suited to the environment of tomorrow.”

During this process, Disney will also be performing a "rigorous review of the company's content and marketing spending." This review will be led by the newly formed "cost structure taskforce," a group that includes Chapek, CFO Christina McCarthy, and general counsel Horacio Gutierrez.

These moves follow Disney's quarterly earnings results that saw an operating loss for its streaming division of $1.47 billion. While revenue increased by 8% to $4.9 billion, it also saw a drop of 5% for Disney's linear television networks in the quarter. Disney also recent saw shares of the company fall to 13.16%, marking the lowest drop in two years.

On the bright side, Disney+ outperformed Wall Street's projections and reached 164.2 million subscribers and it expects the streaming service to "achieve profitability in fiscal 2024."

It feels as though many major companies are going through different cost-cutting measures, as this news follows similar layoffs at Twitter, Meta, and Microsoft.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Ben Brode, the creator of Marvel Snap and co-founder of developer Second Dinner, has opened up about the possibilities of single-player modes for the multiplayer-focused card game.

Speaking to IGN's Simon Cardy, Brode spoke on the team's thoughts toward PvE or similar single-player modes, saying so much of what makes Marvel Snap special revolves around multiplayer.

"I don't know. The game is very different than other card games, right? And so a lot of the fun of the game is the mind games, and trying to kind of imagine what your opponent might do next," Brode said. "I don't know. I guess I would say we haven't done enough thinking about what that might look like to know for sure whether or not we'd be able to do something that'd be really fun in that space.

"I do think there's a lot of room for new modes. We have a lot of cool ideas for new game modes that are multiplayer modes, but I don't know about single-player."

Never say never, but the focus for Brode and Second Dinner appears to be laser-focused on making the best multiplayer experience around. According to our Marvel Snap review, we believe they are on the right track.

"Marvel Snap packs bold ideas, deep gameplay, a punchy presentation and lots of love for Marvel," IGN's Cam Shea wrote. "Its approach to building a collection and randomness in gameplay won't be for everyone, but it's still well worth playing."

For more, check out three of Brode's best Marvel Snap decks, his explanation of the bizarre inclusion of Ego, the location that randomly plays your cards for you, and our full wiki for the Marvel card game.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Studio Ghibli and Star Wars studio Lucasfilm will be releasing Zen - Grogu and Dust Bunnies, a hand-drawn animated original short, on Disney+ tomorrow, November 12.

This announcement appears to be the culmination of a tease by Studio Ghibli that the legendary Japanese animation studio would be collaborating with Lucasfilm on some project.

This new, original short will premiere exclusively on DIsney+ on the third anniversary of the premiere of The Mandalorian, and it is directed by Katsuya Kondo and features music by Ludwig Göransson.

Discover Zen - Grogu and Dust Bunnies, a hand-drawn animation by Studio Ghibli, is streaming tomorrow on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/ODqHrgIwnB

— Disney+ (@DisneyPlus) November 12, 2022

Grogu, or Baby Yoda as he is affectionately called, first appeared in The Mandalorian and has taken the galaxy by storm ever since then. The dust bunnies, on the other hand, appear in Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. In Japanese, they are known as susuwatari, or wandering soot.

On November 10, Studio Ghibli tweeted out a short video of Lucasfilm's logo followed by its own, leading the internet to believe these two worlds would soon be crashing in one spectacular way. Studio Ghibli would continue to tease these collaborations in the following hours, including one that featured a statue of Grogu with a blurred out Hayao Miyazaki in the background.

Studio Ghibli, which was founded in 1985 by Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, and Isao Takahata, is the studio behind such beloved projects as Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Lucasfilm, which was founded by George Lucas in 1971, is the company now owned by Disney that is responsible for such franchises as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Willow, and more.

For more, check out our ranking of the 11 best Studio Ghibli films of all time and all the upcoming Star Wars projects to get an idea of where a new one may fit in.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Since the official release of Marvel Snap, fans have pondered the inclusion of Ego — the living planet played by Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

In Marvel Snap, Ego takes control of cards and plays for you, effectively randomizing the outcome. There's no rhyme or reason to Ego's actions; his moves are completely arbitrary. So why include Ego at all?

According to Second Dinner founder Ben Brode, who recently spoke with IGN on the occasion of Marvel Snap's launch, Ego's design stemmed from a simple question.

"What would a location that's sentient do? Well, maybe it would play your cards for you. I don't know," Brode says. "So it was very what we call top-down design, where we start with the flavor and art, and then design what the heck it would do. And I couldn't think of anything else for what the heck Ego would do."

Just had the most INSANE game of Marvel Snap - got Ego who auto plays the game for both players, but it eventually played scarlet witch, killing itself and giving control back to us, but changing into a location that randomizes every card on the board.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?! pic.twitter.com/3ympdBJwZr

— Andy Yen (@renowned) November 3, 2022

Ego winds up being a change of pace; an opportunity to laugh as it haphazardly plays your deck, frequently resulting in disaster. However, Brode says, that doesn't mean that Ego lacks strategy.

"What's really interesting about that location is it's surprisingly skill testing, actually. Just weirdly, because you're obviously not making any decisions in the gameplay. But because of the Snap mechanic, your ability to say, 'Okay, I have secret information. I know where Ego has played my card. It's either good or bad. And so I need to use that information to decide to Snap, to double down, or retreat,' Brode says.

"And so it puts so much focus on the Snap mechanic in a way that changes the game up in a really interesting way. So I think it's really interesting. It's certainly a very unique location."

This user puts it best:

When Ego is playing in @MARVELSNAP you're obligated to snap!

— JR (@DudeDudenstein_) November 11, 2022

Whatever fans think of Ego, Marvel Snap continues to be very successful. In our review we wrote, "Marvel Snap upends the collectible card game genre with some truly fresh ideas, impressive strategic depth, wonderfully slick presentation, and a fantastic use of the Marvel license.

In addition to talking about Ego and other topics in our review, Brode revealed his three favorite Marvel Snap decks, which may be of interest to high-level players with access to a wide variety of cards. If you're just getting started, make sure to check our some of our best beginner's decks.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

The Nintendo Switch currently offers a decent selection of games for Nintendo Switch Online users, and Representative Director Shigeru Miyamoto says backwards compatibility has "has become easier" than before. But that doesn't mean Nintendo will focus on backwards compatibility when creating new hardware.

In a financial briefing on Wednesday, Miyamoto spoke on how backwards compatibility has become easier over time.

"Previously, software development for dedicated video game systems was conducted in development environments dedicated to each hardware platform. This meant that those environments could not be brought forward when the hardware changed, and it would become impossible to play software released for previous hardware without making changes," Miyamoto said.

"However, the software development environments have recently been gradually integrated. So, generally speaking, it has become easier to implement an environment where software released for past hardware can be played on new hardware."

Nintendo has a long history of backwards compatibility — the GBA supported original Game Boy cartridges, the Wii supported GameCube discs, the Wii U supported Wii discs, and the 3DS supported DS cartridges.

Because of this history, Nintendo fans have been wondering how the company's next console might handle backwards compatibility, as the Switch doesn't currently support cartridges from older consoles.

However, Miyamoto believes that Nintendo's strength lies in the creation of new games and not the preservation of old titles, which means the company won't focus on backwards compatibility when creating new hardware.

"Having said so, Nintendo's strength is in our creation of new entertainment, so when we release new hardware going forward, we plan to continue to offer new and unique gameplay that cannot be realized on existing hardware," he added.

Nintendo also recently revealed that it has sold 114 million Switch units, though the company lowered its sales forecast for the current fiscal year and revealed that a price increase for the Switch hasn't been fully ruled out.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Netflix has unleashed a new teaser trailer for The Witcher: Blood Origin, the upcoming four-part prequel series starring Michelle Yeoh.

Set 1200 years before the events of The Witcher, the trailer transports us back in time to offer a glimpse at an untold story from the Continent: the creation of the first prototype Witcher. The clips show sweeping landscapes, magic-wielding warriors, and lots of bloody combat, with Yeoh's character Scían declaring aloud: "All beginnings, all ends."

Aside from Yeoh, we'll see Sophia Brown as Éile, "an elite warrior-turned-nomadic musician," Laurence O'Fuarain as Fjall, "a warrior that carries a deep scar within," and a host of new characters, including Mirren Mack as Merwyn, Lenny Henry as Balor, and Minnie Driver who will play a "pivotal" role in connecting Blood Origin to the main series.

The four-part prequel series is created by Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, with original author Andrezej Sapkowski consulting. It will chronicle the events leading up to the Conjunction of the Spheres: a cosmic occurrence that allowed different dimensions to briefly merge and brought magic to The Continent for the very first time.

The show's first episode 'Of Ballads and Bloody Blades' is written by Declan de Barra and directed by Sarah O'Gorman. It will be released on Netflix alongside the series' other three episodes on December 25 — joining the first two seasons of The Witcher and The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, an animated origin story film released earlier this year.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Dave Bautista really wants to be in Netflix's Gears of War movie as the Guardians of the Galaxy star posted a video of himself in the game’s iconic armour on Twitter.

“I can’t make this any easier,” he said, tagging both Netflix and the official Gears of War Twitter account. The move is well timed given that Netflix announced the Gears of War film just a few days ago, alongside an adult animated series.

The footage isn't brand new, however, as it comes from a 2019 Gears 5 trailer featuring Bautista after he was announced as a playable DLC character.

I can’t make this any easier. @gearsofwar @netflix #marcusfenix #GearsofWar pic.twitter.com/SzDpiT2rNA

— Dave Bautista (@DaveBautista) November 10, 2022

But the actor clearly thinks it’s the right time to pitch, once again, for the role of Marcus Fenix. He previously turned down a role in the Fast and Furious franchise in order to pursue the Gears of War movie, and has described Marcus Fenix as being his “dream role”.

“They wanted to talk to me about Fast and the Furious, and I said 'I’m not interested, let’s talk about [Gears of War character] Marcus Fenix,’” he said at the time. He also commented that those creating the film "could give AF" about his desire to join the project, though it's not stopped Bautista from continuing his campaign work.

A Gears of War movie has been in the works since at least 2007 but languished in development hell for much of that time. Several writers have joined and since left the project, with the movie changing hands from New Line to Universal and eventually making its way to Netflix.

Gears of War was originally released in 2006 on PC and Xbox and tells the story of a squad of troops embarking on a desperate final mission in an attempt to put an end to a war between humans and a race known as The Locust on a planet called Sera.

Want to read more about Gears of War? Find out how Xbox got its hands on the Gears of War franchise and check out our fan casting of the Gears of War movie.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Paramount has confirmed a 2025 release date for its previously-announced Avatar: The Last Airbender animated film.

As reported by Variety, Avatar will bring its next movie to the screen on October 10, 2025. It's the first of three planned Avatar movies from Paramount and Nickelodeon, but little else is known about the project right now other than it being referred to as the "untitled Aang Avatar film," with Lauren Montgomery at the helm as director.

As the project name suggests, the first film from Avatar Studios will focus on the series' original hero: Aang. Unfortunately, there haven't been any specific plot details shared just yet, such as when in Aang's life the movie might take place and whether any other characters from the original series might make an appearance.

Several Avatar veterans are returning to assist Montgomery with the first movie. Series creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino, who previously stepped away from Netflix's live-action Avatar adaptation, are on board as producers alongside Eric Coleman, the executive producer and production manager of The Last Airbender series.

All three films are being developed under the Avatar Studios banner, which was launched last year with the goal of creating original series and movies set in the beloved world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, for release on Paramount+, Nickelodeon platforms, and unspecified third-party platforms, as well as in cinemas.

It was also announced last year that Nickelodeon had started laying the groundwork for an "Avatar Airbender universe" that would encompass multiple TV series and movies across various platforms. Avatar Studios leaders Konietzko and DiMartino noted that "there are still many stories and time periods in Aang's world" to be covered on-screen.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

After 25 years, perpetual 10-year-old Ash Ketchum has finally become the world's greatest Pokémon trainer.

Ash's big moment took place in the latest episode of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, which premiered today in Japan. In it, Ash's Pikachu defeats a Charizard belonging to Leon, who video game fans will remember as the champion of Pokémon Sword and Shield's Galar region.

Their battle was the final bout in the Pokémon World Coronation Series Masters Eight Tournament, which pits champions from across multiple regions against one another, including Cynthia, Iris, Steven, and Lance. By defeating Leon, Ash effectively proved himself the strongest of all the Pokémon League Champions, thus completing the dream he first set out to accomplish when he left Pallet Town in episode one of the original 1997 series.

This is an especially big deal for Ash, who historically has had a tough run in tournaments like this. In fact, until 2019, he'd never managed to become a Pokémon League Champion in any of his attempts - a losing streak that ended when he defeated Gladion in the Manalo Conference and became Alola's Champion.

Prior to that, though, Ash suffered championship loss after loss, all the way back to his initial run in the Indigo League arc where he only placed in the top 16.

What's next for our hero, then? Well, with a new Pokémon game coming out next week, we're sure to see Ash eventually make his way to the Paldea region and challenge that league. He's also previously expressed desires to, you know, "catch 'em all," but given how far behind he is now that the total number of Pokémon is pushing 1000, this seems an unlikely feat for him to achieve.

Congrats, Ash. You're an inspiration to us all.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.