The late-summer box office delivered two big wins over the weekend, with Zach Cregger’s original horror film Weapons dominating at No. 1 and Disney’s Freakier Friday securing a record-breaking PG-rated opening in August.
Weapons, from New Line and Warner Bros., surged well beyond expectations to debut with US$42.5 million domestically, over US$10 million above pre-release projections. Overseas audiences also turned out in force, adding US$27.5 million for a global launch of US$70 million. The R-rated thriller defied the genre’s usual limits abroad, posting strong results in typically horror-resistant territories across Europe and Latin America. It also became Warner Bros.’ seventh No. 1 opening of the year, and its sixth consecutive film to gross US$40 million domestically on opening weekend.
Starring Julia Garner (The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Ozark), Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame, Dune: Part Two), Alden Ehrenreich (Ironheart, Oppenheimer), Austin Abrams (Do Revenge, Paper Towns), and Amy Madigan (Bull Street, Go for Grandma), Weapons follows a teacher whose students mysteriously vanish in the middle of the night, and a grieving father who suspects her involvement. Cregger, who broke out with 2022’s Barbarian, wrote, directed, and produced the film after New Line outbid rivals in a heated US$38 million package deal. The marketing campaign kept the film’s major twist under wraps, and the gamble paid off —Weapons earned a rare A- CinemaScore for a horror title, alongside a 96 per cent Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score. Premium large formats, including IMAX, accounted for a hefty 34 per cent of its domestic gross.
In second place, Freakier Friday, the sequel to the 2003 body-swap comedy, Freaky Friday, scored US$29 million domestically, marking the best-ever August debut for a PG-rated (or G-rated) film. The Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls, The Parent Trap) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween Ends, Everything Everywhere All at Once) reunion also brought in US$15.5 million internationally for a US$44.5 million global start, nearly matching its US$45 million production budget before marketing.
Directed by Nisha Ganatra (Transparent, Late Night), the sequel introduces a multigenerational twist, with Lohan’s and Curtis’ characters swapping bodies with the daughter and soon-to-be stepdaughter of Anna (Lohan’s character). Julia Butters (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, American Housewife), Sophia Hammons (Up Here, The Absence of Eden), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place, The Acolyte), and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Slanted) co-star. Nostalgia played a major role in its appeal; the original film has recently climbed Disney+’s most-watched list, while strong word-of-mouth, reflected in an A CinemaScore and 93 per cent audience score, drew in both families and general audiences.
Together, Weapons and Freakier Friday delivered one of the strongest double-openings of the season, offering a rare boost for both the horror genre and studio comedies in the streaming era.
Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he’s not sleeping, he’s highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it’s honestly pretty close.
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