Zack Cregger’s new horror movie, Weapons, is off to a good start at the box office, coming in higher than the estimates.
Monday update: Actuals have come in higher with a $43.5M domestic opening, and a $71.8M global opening.
Sunday afternoon update: Estimates are at a $42.5M domestic opening, with another $27.5M from foreign grosses, for a worldwide opening of $70M. The budget is reported to be $38M.
Saturday afternoon update: Friday is said to be higher at $18.2M. Opening weekend estimates are now higher at $40M-$43M. Weapons also gets an A- CinemaScore, which is huge for a horror movie.
Friday PM Update: The opening weekend is looking like $38M, possibly more, which is higher than the estimates. The first Friday is looking like $17M+, which includes the Thursday preview of $5.7M.
Sinners opened to $48M, with a first Friday of $19.2M. Final Destination: Bloodlines opened to $51.6M, with a first Friday of $20.9M, and 28 Years Later opened to $30M, with a first Friday of $14.4M.
The Thursday preview for Weapons is better than Sinners ($4.7M) and Final Destination: Bloodlines ($5.5M), and in line with 28 Years Later ($5.8M).
Both Sinners ($365.8M worldwide) and Final Destination: Bloodlines ($285.3M) were box office hits, while 28 Years Later ($150M) started strong but quickly faded, losing Sony $75M.
A bonus for Weapons is that the budget is reportedly only $38M, which means the break-even number is only around $95M.
Sinners had a budget of around $100M or more, Final Destination: Bloodlines only $50M, and 28 Years Later, $75M.
I haven’t seen Final Destination: Bloodlines, but I really like Weapons and Sinners. I despise 28 Years Later, and Weapons blows that flick out of the water. Weapons is also a lot better than Cregger’s Barbarian, IMO, which brought in $45M back in 2022 on a budget of only $4.5 million.
The Thursday previews for Weapons also beat Disney’s Freakier Friday, which brought in $3M, so Weapons has a good shot of taking the #1 box office this weekend. Freakier Friday is estimated to open to $30M.
Rotten Tomatoes Scores are good (96% / 90%), and word of mouth has been on fire. As I’ve said, just go watch the flick, don’t read any reviews or watch the trailers.
Release info
Weapons is now in theaters, directed by Zach Cregger.
The film stars Josh Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan.
