Horror at the Box Office: ‘Weapons’ Thrashes the Competition
Blasting past expectations, Weapons debuted with a smashing estimated $42.5 million domestically in its opening weekend, easily topping the box office. Analysts had predicted that the Weapons box office total would be in the $30 million range. It’s earned about $70 million worldwide, a fantastic start for the $38 million budgeted film.
Weapons is the third horror movie to open #1 in its opening weekend in 2025. The other two are Sinners and Final Destination: Bloodlines. Remarkably, all three are distributed by Warner Bros. They’re having a hell of a year with horror so far.
This performance is especially impressive for an original property that lacks either a built-in franchise fanbase (like Final Destination) or a world famous celebrity star (like Michael B. Jordan in Sinners). It’s a positive sign that viewers are still open to original and innovative movies.
Together finished in ninth place in its second weekend, grossing an estimated $2.6 million for a total of about $17.2 million. That’s a drop of 61% from week 1, which is around the normal range for a horror movie. It cost $17 million to produce.
I Know What You Did Last Summer dropped out of the top ten, finishing in 11th place with $2.1 million in its third weekend. It’s earned a $31.4 million domestic gross and about $63 million total worldwide. It will likely disappear from theaters soon, making room for a couple of new genre movies that are debuting.
Up Next
With widely positive reactions from critics and viewers, Weapons should be poised to endure in the weeks ahead. It will face some competition next week when Witchboard and Eli Roth Presents Jimmy and Stigs both debut.
I doubt either newcomer will be a major hit, but they’ll still take a slice of Weapons‘s potential week 2 audience. Also coming up is Hellhouse LLC: Lineage on August 20th, as that series gets a theatrical release for the first time.
Credit to Box Office Mojo for the figures cited.
