Traditionally, buzzy films don't get released in August. The end of summer has long been a time on the calendar when studios opt to dump their most mediocre releases because movie-goers are often busy with vacations, getting ready for the upcoming school year, and other distractions. Zach Cregger's Weapons, however, has arrived as a tradition-breaker. While we still have a few weeks before spooky season properly starts, one of the buzziest horror features of the year arrived on the big screen this past Friday, and after just three days, it is a bona fide hit.
There was plenty of competition at the box office this weekend, as Weapons did battle with fellow new release Nisha Ganatra's Freakier Friday and holdover blockbusters including Matt Shakman's The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but audiences were hungry to get scared this weekend, and it led to big ticket sales numbers. You can check out the full Top 10 in the chart below and join me after for analysis.
TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Weapons* | $42,500,000 | $42,500,000 | 3,202 |
2. Freakier Friday* | $29,000,000 | $29,000,000 | 3,975 |
3. The Fantastic Four: First Steps | $15,500,000 | $230,412,709 | 3,600 |
4. The Bad Guys 2 | $10,400,000 | $43,409,000 | 3,860 |
5. The Naked Gun | $8,375,000 | $33,010,000 | 3,363 |
6. Superman | $7,800,000 | $331,243,000 | 2,920 |
7. Jurassic World Rebirth | $4,700,000 | $326,800,000 | 2,691 |
8. F1 | $2,835,000 | $178,581,000 | 1,351 |
9. Together | $2,600,000 | $17,210,662 | 2,225 |
10. Sketch* | $2,527,285 | $5,018,691 | 2,157 |
Riding High On Great Buzz, Weapons Surpassed Expectations For Its Box Office Opening Weekend
In the past week, trades published predictions that said Weapons would make somewhere in the range of $25-30 million during its first weekend in theaters... and it's always a healthy sign for the industry when a particular title manages to exceed expectations. Zach Cregger's follow-up to Barbarian spent weeks developing hype, and the end result is that the feature has already made back its reported budget.
According to The Numbers, audiences have shown up in droves for Weapons since it arrived in cinemas at the end of last week, and it managed to bring in $42.5 million domestically – more than enough for it to secure first place at the box office. During a blockbuster major horror movies, it had the third best opening weekend for the genre, lagging just behind the arrivals of Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein's Final Destination: Bloodlines ($57 million) in May and Ryan Coogler's Sinners ($48 million) in April. Those two titles finished their respective theatrical runs making $285.3 million and $365.8 million, so one can definitely say the newest horror movie is in a good place at the start of its time on the big screen.
Of course, a major contributor to this success is all of the positive word of mouth that has surrounded the title in recent weeks. Audiences ended up loving the surprises of Barbarian (which shocked the world with its debut at number one at the box office in 2022), and excitement for the new Zach Cregger has built recently with overwhelmingly positive reviews and promises that the surprises packed in are even better than its predecessor (I was personally part of that wave with my five-star Weapons review for CinemaBlend). Movie-goers properly recognized it as a title to see as early as possible, and that has paid off in a major way.
In addition to getting an overwhelmingly acclaim from professional critics, Weapons is fortunately also getting a matching response from audiences. For example, the new release received an "A-" grade from CinemaScore surveys (which is lower than the "A" grade that Sinners got, but higher than the "B+" that Final Destination: Bloodlines got. If all goes according to plan, everyone who saw it and loved it over the past three days will tell all of their friends about it, and that will result in a minimal weekend-to-weekend drop when I'm reporting on box office results next Sunday.
Per Deadline, Weapons cost $38 million for New Line Cinema to make (that number including both the budget for the production and the cost for acquiring the script), and while there are still publicity and advertising costs to consider, the film is obviously in a very positive place financially right now. In addition to the $42.5 million earned domestically, it has also made $27.5 million from overseas markets thus far, which equates to a $70 million total after just three days. That's pretty damn impressive from a non-IP title, and it already puts it in the ranking of Top 35 highest grossing movies of the year.
How the industry will react to this will ultimately be fascinating, as Weapons was certainly not a guarantee to be a hit when one considers all of the factors that play into the market right now. Original horror is already in the midst of an awesome boom, and how this release raises the ceiling for the genre's perceived potential in the coming years will be fascinating to watch.
Freakier Friday Easily Lands In Second Place As The Fantastic Four: First Steps Takes Another Tough Tumble
The aforementioned Weapons, Final Destination: Bloodlines and Sinners are all Warner Bros. releases, and the studio's big year has further been bolstered by the box office numbers for Joseph Kosinski's F1 ($570.7 million globally to date )and James Gunn's Superman ($578.8 million so far). But not doing so hot recently are titles that have arrived from Disney – the big and obvious exception being Dean Fleisher Camp's Lilo & Stitch remake. The past three days extended that trend, as neither Freakier Friday nor The Fantastic Four: First Steps managed to have the weekends they were hoping for.
Going into the weekend, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that both Freakier Friday and Weapons were going to perform in the $25-30 million range, with the former tracking a bit ahead, but the horror title ended up trouncing the comedy sequel starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan. The Disney title had to settle for a $29 million take and a second place finish for its opening weekend – which certainly isn't a disaster, but it also isn't ideal (per Variety, it was made with a $42 million budget)
That result is pretty mediocre, but it's a silver lining compared to what is currently happening with the new Fantastic Four movie. With its late July release date and August usually being a very slow month for blockbusters, the expectation going into this summer was that the Marvel Cinematic Universe title would dominate for the last month of the season, but that's definitely not happening. Despite getting good reviews and mostly positive responses from audiences, the ensemble feature starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is fading quickly at the box office.
It suffered a devastating 67 percent weekend-to-weekend plummet last Sunday following its very successful opening weekend, and the distraction of both Weapons and Freakier Friday hasn't helped it. Ticket sales dropped another 60 percent compared to last weekend, and it only made $15.5 million over the last three days. That brings its domestic total to date up to $230.4 million, and it has made $434.2 million worldwide. It's far from a bomb, but definitely not the success that folks at Marvel Studios were hoping for.
How will the Top 10 change with the arrival of both Timo Tjahjanto's Nobody 2 and Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest on Friday? Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for our analysis.
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