Weapons horror film scores a North American box office victory
Weapons transports audiences to the small town of Maybrook, where 17 kids up and leave their homes at 2.17am, leaving bewildered parents in their wake.
This image released by Warner Bros Pictures shows Josh Brolin in a scene from Weapons. (Quantrell Colbert/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
It’s August, and horror and humour came to play. In a month that’s long been known to let edgier movies thrive, Zach Cregger’s highly anticipated horror film Weapons did not disappoint, topping the North American box office during its debut weekend with US$42.5 million (S$54.6 million) from 3,202 theatres. It made US$70 million internationally.
The film’s success also handed its distributor, Warner Bros Pictures, the seventh No 1 opening of the year, and became the studio’s sixth film in a row to debut with over US$40 million in North America.
Freakier Friday, Disney’s chaotic sequel to the 2003 classic, Freaky Friday, took the second spot during its premiere weekend, earning US$29 million in 3,975 North American theatres. Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis return, this time for a double body-swapping between the mother-daughter duo and Lohan’s teen daughter and soon-to-be stepdaughter.
Viral marketing tactics, coupled with strong social media word-of-mouth, boded well for both films’ success, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore.
“The top two films could not be more different, and that’s what makes this weekend so appealing for moviegoers,” Dergarabedian said. “Both are perfectly tailored for their audiences to react in real time over the weekend to these films and then post on social media.”
Weapons transports audiences to the small town of Maybrook, where 17 kids up and leave their homes at 2.17am, leaving bewildered parents in their wake. The town is left to navigate the lingering effects of trauma through horror, paranoia and a touch of existential humour.
The film is Cregger’s follow-up to his solo directorial debut with the 2022 genre-bending horror, Barbarian. That critically-acclaimed film had a slower start and smaller budget, but still topped the charts during its premiere with US$10 million in North American and made a splash in the genre.
Weapons generated a lot of buzz for its strong reviews (95 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes).
“The internet’s exploding right now between Friday and today. You just see that people are having a great time with it,” said Jeffrey Goldstein, president of Global Distribution for Warner Bros. “It starts with an exceptional movie, an exceptional marketing campaign, and the date was exceptional too.”
The success of the comedy-horror double premiere meant The Fantastic Four: First Steps surrendered its two-week run in the top spot and landed in the third position, bringing in US$15.5 million at the North American box office. The superhero movie enjoyed a strong US$118 million debut, but stumbled in its second weekend.
The Bad Guys 2, which got a healthy start at the No 2 spot during its premiere weekend, came in fourth place, earning US$10.4 million. The Naked Gun had a similar fate, reaching the fifth position with US$8.4 million in North American theatres.
Jurassic World Rebirth, which came in seventh this week, is expected to hit US$800 million globally by Monday, according to NBC Universal, following a successful run in theatres.
Warner Bros started off slow this year, but made a comeback with the box-office hit, A Minecraft Movie, which opened with US$157 million in North America. Since then, movies like Sinners, Superman and now, Weapons, have found success.
The studio set “a blueprint to how to create a perfect summer lineup”, Dergarabedian said.
Weapons also joins a stream of successful horror movies this year, its opening numbers coming in just behind Final Destination: Bloodlines and Sinners.
