“Weapons” has the upper hand in its box office duel against “Freakier Friday,” though both new releases are drawing strong openings as the summer tentpole season begins to wind down.
Opening on top, Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Weapons” added $18.2 million across Friday and preview screenings from 3,202 locations. The film has Imax and most premium large format auditoriums. Select screenings began Thursday afternoon at 2:17 pm, to match a key time that spurs the story — the hour when a group of children all awaken at once and mysteriously disappear. The movie sports an ensemble cast including Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan.
The horror now looks to come in well ahead of its pre-weekend projections, which had topped out around $30 million. That’s a great start for the R-rated original, which carries a production budget of $38 million. It’s also a huge spike up from writer-director Zach Cregger’s last feature, the low-budget “Barbarian,” which Disney‘s 20th Century Studios opened to $10 million in 2022 before riding strong word of mouth to $40 million. The film instantly established Cregger, who began as a founding member of sketch group The Whitest Kids U’ Know, as a rising voice in horror.
New Line won “Weapons” in a subsequent bidding war and its confidence in the project has yielded another summer box office victory for Warner Bros. “Weapons” scored spectacularly with critics, but more encouraging is the “A-” grade from moviegoer survey firm Cinema Score. Horror movies tend to poll to lower grades, which makes the high marks all the more encouraging for “Weapons.” As he did with “Barbarian,” Cregger seems to have turned in a movie that will stick with audiences in the weeks ahead.
In second, Disney’s “Freakier Friday” is starting well too, earning $12.7 million across Friday and previews from 3,975 sites. While “Weapons” gets Imax, “Freakier” has a share of other premium large format auditoriums. The comedy sequel follows up the enduring 2003 remake “Freaky Friday,” reuniting Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis as body-swapping daughter and mother. It has a shot at outpacing its pre-weekend projections, which ranged from $27 million to $30 million.
At a production budget of $42 million, that’s a good kick-off for the PG-rated feature. “Freakier Friday” also has positive reviews on its side, plus a great “A” grade from Cinema Score — both auspicious signs for its prospects for the rest of the summer moviegoing season.
Falling to third place, Disney’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” added another $4.5 million on Friday, down 62% from its daily total a week ago. The superhero adventure looks headed for another steep drop, after plummeting 67% in its sophomore outing last weekend.
Now in its third frame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe entry looks to push to a $229 million North American total through Sunday. Earlier in the week, “Fantastic Four” passed up “Captain America: Brave New World” ($200 million) to rank as the seventh-biggest domestic release of the year. But it’s also only the 26th-highest-grossing MCU installment in North America and isn’t on pace to climb much higher than that, continuing Marvel’s recent trend of falling below its glory years of box office dominance.
Fourth goes to Universal’s “The Bad Guys 2,” which added another $3 million on Friday and is headed toward a $10.7 million sophomore outing, which would be down 51% from its opening. The DreamWorks Animation sequel looks to push to a $43.7 million domestic total through its first 10 days of release. The 2022 original earned $44 million through the same frame; it finished with $97 million in North America.
Rounding out the five is “The Naked Gun,” the final release of Paramount’s old regime after the studio’s acquisition by Skydance closed earlier this week. The Liam Neeson comedy added another $2.3 million on Friday and is projecting $8.4 million for the weekend, down 50% from its opening weekend. Domestic total looks to hit $33 million through Sunday.
Also new this weekend, Angel Studios opened the fantasy comedy “Sketch” in 2,006 locations on Wednesday. The feature, which Angel acquired after a Toronto Film Festival premiere last year, has earned $3.2 million so far and looks to rank in tenth place for the weekend.
variety.com
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