It was a big weekend for horror at the box office and another important for Warner Bros.the that she suffered major failures last year, WB has been on an absolute tear in recent months, with the “weapons” of director Zach Cregger who are now successful in a great series of success. This one, however, is an original horror film that has managed to run in mind despite the competition in the form of the family “Friday Friday” in Disney.
“Weapons” opened at $ 43.5 million at the national level. It was well above the pre-liberation estimates, which had it in the range of $ 40 million, with “Freaker Friday” which should draw at least $ 40 million. It sought in the other way, with “Freak Plus Friday” making $ 29 million. In any case, the two films have won compared to their budgets, but WB can also claim another number one film following “Superman”, “F1”, “Final Destination Bloodlines”, “Sinners” and “A Minecraft Movie”. It’s a hell of a race.
As for “weapons”, he also pulled $ 28.3 million abroad (a stellar issue for an American horror film), which gives him a world start of $ 71.8 million. Even against a production budget in the range of $ 40 million, this is an excellent result, with the needle pointing up. The sky could be the limit here.
So, what went well for the second effort to carry out solo features of Cregger? How Warner Bros. Did he manage to sell an original film so effectively? We will examine the biggest reasons why “arms” killed her at the box office on the opening weekend. Let’s go.
Weapons have arrived at stellar criticism
Good criticisms do not always push a film over it, but, in this case, it is impossible to deny that the actual effective response to “weapons” was a major factor. The second effort as a solo director of Cregger is currently a 95% stellar approval note on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the second best studio horror film of the year behind “Sinners” by Ryan Coogler. He also won A- Cinemascore, which is extremely rare for a horror film. This suggests that word of mouth will be very strong in the coming weeks.
In his almost perfect review of “weapons” for / film, Chris Evangelista congratulated the last of Cregger as “a twisted, funny and scary suburban nightmare”. He is apparently not alone in his evaluation. This buzz helped the film to an opening day larger than expected and once people started to delirious on this online subject, it helped bring out more moviegoers that could have been differently on the sofa. This film has avoided the curse a lot “Wait to Stream”, which is not a little thing for an original film of all kinds in 2025.
With a relative lack of new major versions to come in August, this film now has the potential to drag for weeks to come, giving this big buzz the track to make its thing on a longer chronology.
Warner Bros. has perfectly marketed weapons
However, Warner Bros. Taken for flops like “Joker: madness at Deu”, it is difficult to plead against what the regime led by Mike de Luca and Pam Abdy were able to accomplish this year. To this end, they helped to carry out a perfect marketing campaign for the “weapons” – which managed to keep the biggest secrets of the film under the Wraps. Instead, they gave the public just enough to make them curious, but not so much that Cregger’s Twisty Ride lost his punch. And whoever saw him in an excited theater can probably tell you, he has a punch.
Dating from the first mysterious trailer for “weapons” in April, WB relied on the intrigue and the central mystery surrounding a bunch of missing children, as well as bizarre images, such as clocks at 2:17 or a child in a dark class with makeup on his face. There are so many concerns about the broadcasting of people of these days that the studios show almost everything they can to attract potential ticket buyers. In this case, from Luca, Abdy and their team wisely went in the other direction. To raise more questions than answers to large posters and everything else, marketing has very effectively brought people into the door for it.
Weapons had very little direct competition
Even if he had to open up against “Friday more bizarre”, the fact is that the “weapons” had very little direct competition. In the horror space, “Ensemble” de Neon was in his second weekend of exit, but was only $ 2.6 million, landing to the new number on the charts. Elsewhere, “I know what you did last summer” had already fallen from the top 10 after its disappointing opening, while “28 years later” is essentially out of theaters now that its VOD race has started.
In any degree that we want to consider the horror of “Jurassic World Rebirth”, even in this case, the film is short of steam in its sixth weekend, taking $ 4.7 million. The biggest point is that the monitoring of Cregger at “Barbarian” of 2022 was roughly the only big name in the city for horror fans. Of course, “Freakalier Friday” was another great film, but he went for an entirely different audience and served as a pretty counter-programming. This kind of thing should happen more often, frankly.
Even if we want to get out of horror, “The Fantastic: Fantastic: First Steps” by Marvel Studios continues to fall quickly from Grace, drawing only $ 15.5 million for another 60% drop last weekend. Everything comes down to Warner Bros. Choose the perfect release date. In the end, the “weapons” marked the advantages of a summer launch without the steep competition which generally accompanies it.
Weapons have managed to become a rare and original theatrical event
One of the most unhappy things that has happened to the box office in recent years is this notion that everything must be an event to become a success. “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were both events, but the Barbenheimer of all this turned into something else. Even a film in the sense of “F1” was actually sold using the marketing line “you need to see these racing scenes on the largest possible screen”. Heck, Universal sells tickets to “The Odyssey” by Christopher Nolan, an entire year earlier just for the event of everything as quickly as possible.
Keeping all this in mind, the simple fact of being a hell of a good horror film is often not enough. Although the bridge is stacked against this in this direction, Warner Bros. still managed to sell “weapons” as an event. Was it an event because people wanted to understand the mystery behind everything? Is it an event because people wanted to be afraid in a theater together? Was it just a question of all those who wanted to have a moment of water cooler involving the film of the moment? Anyway, an original horror film by an rising filmmaker has managed to do what few films can do today. It is not a little thing.
Zach Cregger has the goods
The biggest X factor in all of this is Zach Cregger himself. In the space of only two films, he asserted himself as a very precious voice in Hollywood. It is not quite unlike Jordan Peele, who turned out to be a generational talent after the success of “Get Out” and “Us” back to back. I am not saying “Zach Cregger is the next Jordan Peele”, does not twist it. I say that he asserted himself in a way that few filmmakers can so early in their careers as directors.
Cregger broke out in 2022 when “Barbarian” against all odds, exceeded the Disney box office. It was a weekend certainly slow, but the film ended with $ 45 million against a budget of $ 4.5 million and obtained glowing criticism. This drew Hollywood’s attention and an auction war joined “weapons” with Warner Bros. And a new line that gets.
This is a thing that a script is good. This is another thing entirely to keep the promise of this script. In complete safety, Congger did it to the shovel here. There are now two for two with his solo director efforts, having also written these scripts personally. It is his ideas that are precious. It is his point of view that is precious. IP is limited. It can only go so far. Having a guy who can transform an original idea into a hit? It is gold that is difficult to find these days. Cregger has the goods, there is no doubt about it now.
“Weapons” is currently playing in theaters.
