Warner Bros.’ Weapons earned $25 million in its second weekend, surpassing $89 million domestically to retain the box office crown. It has passed $138 million worldwide, which is a very strong hold for any title, horror included. It’s pulling from all demographics, except for the horror aspect, to pique the curiosity of why this contender for Movie of the Year is worth seeing. Positive reviews, a nifty pitch (kids run out of school at 2:17 AM into the darkness!), a good ensemble, a marquee director, and “escapism” attributes will keep this humming along. Perhaps this is another indication that Hollywood should create more original content for audiences rather than rehashing yesterday’s products; Sinners comes to mind. Warner Bros., as mentioned last weekend, has been pulling out all the stops for having big weekend debuts, including new-concept originals. If this legs like The Conjuring, we could probably see a $150 million domestic haul. Let the kids see the new stuff, push back on the old unless they want it!
Freakier Friday earned silver once again in its second weekend, with $14.5 million (-49%), and has surpassed $54 million domestically. It’s somewhat cumbersome to compare it to many other comedies from the last decade alone in terms of legs, but this one is doing “fine” for a comedy film about females, made by females.
Newcomer Nobody 2 earned $9.25 million in its debut, which is higher than its predecessor’s $6.8 million that opened during 2021 “Are we returning to theaters?” times. Again, it’s a fun feature with a B+ from CinemaScore, but don’t expect this to be any breakout sequel if we’re banking on legs alone. For a $25 million budgeted film, this shall be adequate.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps narrowly missed $250 million domestically in its fourth weekend, as it has surpassed $451 million worldwide. Yes, it’ll likely help the “steps” to reach $500 million, and it’s showing its legs relatively too late for a late summer MCU film. Disney/Marvel needs a wake-up call for this one, hopefully bringing in crisis management if Doomsday cannot deliver the goods. The Bad Guys 2 earned $7.5 million in its third weekend, passing $57 million domestic and $101 million worldwide.
Superman is a few steps from reaching $600 million worldwide as it’s headed to PVOD; why James Gunn needed to tell everyone that it had to drop early before Peacemaker Season 2 is a bizarre choice, but don’t let this abstract thinking plague the new reboot of this side of DC, as Marvel has learnt the hard way. The Naked Gun has earned $42 million in its first seventeen days of release, Jurassic World Rebirth will pass $815 million worldwide by Tuesday, and F1: The Movie is not too far off from $600 million globally.
Next weekend sees the release of Honey Don’t!, Eden, Splitsville, Afterburn, and Relay.
