We told you Tuesday that New Line’s Weapons could tip the scales at the box office past Disney’s Freakier Friday with a mid-$30M-to-$40M take. Further proof of the Zach Cregger-directed/written/produced title’s heat: Fandango is reporting that the movie is the second-best horror ticket pre-seller of 2025 behind Sinners at the same point in its sales cycle, and it’s ahead of Final Destination Bloodlines and 28 Years Later.
Sinners opened to $48M in April. Warners owns the two top openings for horror movies this year with New Line’s Final Destination Bloodlines ($51.6M) and Warner’s own Sinners. Fandango reports that Weapons also is the best horror ticket pre-seller among all of Cregger’s films, surpassing 2022’s Barbarian, which opened to $10.5M and ended its run at $40.8M on a $4.5M production cost.
Just an asterisk when it comes to horror presales: These movies can be very frontloaded. The presales for 28 Years Later, I understand, made it look like a $38M opening, and that Danny Boyle movie settled at $30M — still one of the best starts for a horror movie YTD in this crowded marketplace.
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Off of 49 reviews, Weapons currently stands at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics. Wow. Weapons is booked at 3,200 theaters, armed with Imax and evening PLFs. Freakier Friday won’t be shabby in its opening with a $30M+ start.
We’re hearing that New Line bought the Cregger project at auction for $38M. The pic’s actual production cost came in higher than expected due to the Hollywood strikes.
“It is no surprise that fans are eager to see Zach Cregger’s next twisted horror story with Weapons,” said Jerramy Hainline, EVP of Fandango. “From the moment we saw the trailer at CinemaCon in April, we knew we were in for a treat, and it’s clear that fans are just as excited for the terrifying journey ahead.”
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In Weapons, children from a single classroom go missing in a small town in the middle of the night, fleeing their bedrooms. A father (James Brolin) and the class’ concerned teacher (Julia Garner) try to figure out what went wrong.
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