The Warner Bros. box office streak continues. Riding a high wave since the release of “A Minecraft Movie” four months ago, the studio’s winning ways continued this weekend with New Line’s “Weapons,” which earned an $18.2 million opening day from 3,202 locations — including $5.7 million from previews — and putting it on course for a $40 million opening weekend.
The sophomore film from director Zach Cregger is blowing past the performance of his debut film “Barbarian” both financially and critically. “Barbarian” was glowingly received by critics, but was tepidly received by opening weekend audiences and received a C+ on CinemaScore.
“Weapons” is not only set to eclipse the entire $40.8 million domestic run of “Barbarian” in just one weekend, but both critics and audiences are giving it a thumbs up with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 96% critics and 88% audience and a rare CinemaScore grade of A-.
That makes “Weapons” only the 14th horror movie since 1981 to earn an A- or higher on CinemaScore, and becomes the second Warner horror film this year alongside Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” which earned the third horror A in CinemaScore history, to reach that mark. Other horror films to earn an A- include James Wan’s pair of “Conjuring” films, John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place — Part II” and Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning “Get Out.”
This strong opening for “Weapons” caps off an impeccable summer for Warner Bros. after the successful runs of “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” “Superman” and “F1,” the latter being an Apple production with Warner as distributor. With $1.45 billion grossed domestically so far, it leads all studios in 2025.
Just behind Warner on the studio market share charts is Disney, which is enjoying some mid-budget success of their own with “Freakier Friday,” the legacyquel to Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan’s 2003 body swap comedy. With a $12.7 million opening day from 3,975 theaters, it is on course for a $30 million opening weekend, meeting pre-release projections.
Expected to draw out nostalgic millennials, “Freakier Friday” has earned rave reception with an 94% audience RT score and an A on CinemaScore. It is well on course to turn a theatrical profit against its $42 million budget.
“Freakier Friday” will be some good news for Disney. But on the flipside is Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which is continuing its steep decline after a strong opening weekend with an industry estimated $15 million third weekend. That’s a 61% drop from its $40 million second weekend, which itself was a 66% opening weekend drop. The movie’s estimated domestic total stands at $229 million through Sunday, 21% behind the pace set by “Superman,” which is passing $330 million domestic with a $7.8 million fifth weekend.
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