It may not have happened at 2:17 a.m., but “Weapons” has reached a major box office milestone.
Director and writer Zach Cregger‘s horror hit, about 17 school children from the same class who mysteriously all go missing in the middle of the night, has crossed $100 million at the domestic box office. That’s a great achievement for a low-budget horror movie, which has also been No. 1 at the box office for the past two weeks.
It took two weeks for “Weapons” to reach $100.3 million domestically, a fantastic milestone considering it only cost $38 million to produce. Internationally, the movie has made $72.3 million, putting its worldwide total at $172.6 million.
It’s been a great year for original horror and Warner Bros. specifically. The studio had another R-rated major hit earlier this year with Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror movie “Sinners.” Coogler’s movie stands at $365 million worldwide, including $278 million domestically; it opened to $48 million domestically, while “Weapons” launched at $42.5 million.
“Weapons,” produced by New Line, is the latest in a string of hits for Warner Bros. that includes “A Minecraft Movie,” “F1” (released with Apple), “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines” and “Superman.” They’ve all opened above $40 million at the box office, making Warner Bros. the first studio in history with a run of that length. This weekend will also be big for “Superman” and “F1” as they both round the corner to $600 million worldwide (“Superman” currently stands at $599.6 million and “F1” sits at $596.8 million).
However, in a box office surprise, “Weapons” may be dethroned this weekend by an unlikely opponent: Netflix’s streaming hit “Kpop Demon Hunters.” The streamer is releasing the animated musical movie in 1,700 theaters Saturday and Sunday for singalong versions. “Kpop Demon Hunters,” produced by Sony Pictures Animation, has quickly risen in the ranks of Netflix’s most popular movies ever, and many of the singalong theaters have already sold out of tickets. It’s unclear, though, if Netflix will release traditional box office figures this weekend for the special engagement.
After Cregger made a name for himself with his 2022 directorial debut “Barbarian,” which made $45.4 million worldwide from a $4.5 million budget, he’s become one of the fastest rising filmmakers in Hollywood. Up next, he’s adapting the popular horror video game “Resident Evil” for Sony, which re-teams him with his “Weapons” star Austin Abrams in the lead role.
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