American moviegoers are sending a loud and clear message to Hollywood: make high quality, unique horror films and we’ll come.
This weekend, Zach Cregger’s “Weapons” topped the box workplace, grossing $42.5 million domestically. It’s the second time this 12 months that an unique horror was No. 1 on the box workplace. In April, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” raked in $45.6 million in its opening weekend.
Both “Weapons” and “Sinners” are distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, which has proven “a great formula for making big horror hits,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore.
Warner Bros. Discovery is the mum or dad firm of NCS.
“Weapons” has already surpassed Cregger’s 2022 hit “Barbarian,” which grossed $40.8 million domestically. Reviews for “Weapons” have been 95% constructive, whereas “Sinners” obtained 97%, based on review-aggregation web site Rotten Tomatoes.
“Horror movies that get great reviews, that are super buzzy, like ‘Weapons,’ can do extraordinarily well at the box office,” mentioned Dergarabedian.
The No. 2 film on the weekend box workplace was Disney’s “Freakier Friday,” which opened to $29 million. It’s the sequel to the 2003 launch of “Freaky Friday,” a fantasy comedy that grossed $193.1 million domestically, adjusted for inflation.
“Having a comedy from Disney with ‘Freakier Friday’ and then having a horror movie at the other end of the genre and rating spectrum really worked. So there was really something for everyone,” mentioned Dergarabedian
“Weapons” and “Freakier Friday” have been extra wins for the general box workplace, which is up 7.6% from this time final 12 months for a complete of $5.6 billion, based on Comscore knowledge.
Disney and Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which is in its third week in theaters, dropped 60% in earnings from the earlier week, grossing $15.5 million and snagging the No. 3 spot. That brings its whole domestic earnings to $230.4 million.
Two films that opened final weekend got here in a No. 4 and No. 5. Animated household movie “Bad Guys 2” introduced in $10.4 million, whereas “The Naked Gun,” the fourth movie of the franchise, earned $8.37 million.
“It’s a good weekend for the summer to start winding down,” mentioned Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder and proprietor of Box Office Theory, including that Disney’s subsequent “biggest hitters” are developing on the finish of the 12 months — “Zootopia 2” on November 26 and “Avatar: Fire and Ash” opening December 19.