In what’s one of the last big showdowns at the summer box office, New Line’s Weapons, which is strong across the board, and Disney’s femme-skewing, much millennial-loved Freakier Friday are about to face off, with the tracking reports indicating a too-close-to-call race for No. 1 with $30 million-plus expected for both.
However, there is immense buzz from distribution sources that the Weapons, the enigmatic horror movie directed, written and produced by Zach Cregger about a class of school children who fled their homes mysteriously in the night, has the edge with a mid-$30M and possible $40M take. We’re hearing that AMC is seeing presales for Weapons ahead of 28 Days Later; that Danny Boyle zombie title opened to $30M.
Disney’s Freakier Friday, which reteams Lindsay Lohan and Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis from the 2003 film, is also hoping for $30M.
The advantage for R-rated Weapons is that it has all the Imax auditoriums and night-time PLFs (Freakier Friday will have the PLFs for day showtimes). Also, definite interest on tracking for the horror pic starring Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Benedict Wong and Alden Ehrenreich is over 40 across all demos (by the way, that doesn’t mean people over 40: those figures are tracking numbers for men and women over and under the age of 25). That’s a streak of definite interest figures that any studio can envy. Freakier Friday‘s 40+ figures in definite interest are among females only.
Also, Weapons is currently 100% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes compared with Freakier Friday‘s 79% fresh. The original Freaky Friday was 88% certified fresh with critics with an A- CinemaScore.
The upside for Freakier Friday is that it’s bound to rule the middle of the country, which savors PG-rated movies. Currently, we hear that presales for the Nisha Ganatra-directed movie stand at $3M. The sweet spot for Freakier Friday is women 17-34 and teens.
The 2003 movie opened during the first frame of August to $22.2M over three days and $33.1M over five days. Freaky Friday ranked No. 2 at the weekend B.O. back then, behind Sony’s big-screen rendition of the TV show S.W.A.T. ($37M). Freaky Friday was a remake of the 1976 Disney classic starring Jodie Foster, Barbara Harris and John Astin about a mom and a daughter whose personalities are switched on a strange Friday. In Freakier Friday the souls of a grandmother, mother, daughter and step-daughter are swapped among one other (you’ll have to see the movie to find out who switches with who).
Weapons is booked at 3,200 locations. There are 7 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse shows on Wednesday, with previews starting at 2:17 p.m. on Thursday (that first showtime is a reference to the time when the kiddies ran out of their homes in the film, even though it was 2:17 a.m.).
Freakier Friday is holding its first preview Wednesday at 7 p.m., 22 years to the day the original movie bowed. Thursday shows start at 2 p.m. The pic is booked in 3,975 theatres including 850 PLFs and 150+ DBOX/Motion screens.
New Line won Weapons in an auction for close to $38M, with the price tag including the budget and Cregger getting $5 million to direct, and $10 million total when that sum was added to his fees for scripting and producing alongside Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Miri Yoon, and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules. Warners beat out Universal, which bid $7M less than its rival down the road. Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw were going to produce Weapons had Uni landed it.
Warner Bros originally had Weapons opening in cinemas on MLK weekend 2026 before they moved the horror film into this year thanks to great test scores.
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