August can sometimes be a slower month at the box office, as the summer movie season winds down after all the major studio tentpoles have their day in theaters. This year, however, there was a notable title that made a lot of noise. Bolstered by a mysterious marketing campaign and enthusiastic word of mouth, Zach Cregger’s acclaimed horror film Weapons emerged as a late-season hit. Exceeding box office projections in its opening weekend, it’s taken advantage of relatively weak competition to put together a strong run. While horror fans are still checking Weapons out on the big screen, some viewers are probably wondering when they’ll be able to rewatch the film at home. It’s now been revealed when Weapons hits digital.
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Today, Warner Bros. Entertainment announced that Weapons will be available on digital beginning Tuesday, September 9th. That’s a little over a month after the film premiered in theaters. Physical copies will be released on October 14th.
Weapons Is Coming to Digital Surprisingly Soon
Weapons wasn’t just a draw for only horror fans; it reached some notable box office milestones during its theatrical run. The opening weekend haul out-grossed the domestic total of Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian, and Weapons passed Disney’s live-action Snow White on the charts after just 10 days. Weapons dominated the box office throughout August, winning three out of its first four weekends. It would have been the No. 1 film all four weeks were it not for Netflix giving Kpop Demon Hunters a limited one-weekend engagement.
Business should start to slow down for Weapons now that fellow horror film The Conjuring: Last Rites is out. The latest installment in the popular Conjuring franchise is estimated to earn $40+ million domestically in its opening weekend. September also sees the release of Stephen King thriller The Long Walk, which has earned very positive reviews.
Even with high-profile titles like The Conjuring: Last Rites and The Long Walk arriving, it’s still surprising to see Weapons get its home media release so soon after it debuted in theaters. The film has continued to make a lot of money over the last month, so Warner Bros. would seemingly be incentivized to extend its exclusive theatrical run to boost the totals. Weapons will still be playing on the big screen, but now people don’t have as much reason to make the trip to the theater. If someone hasn’t seen Weapons yet, they can just wait a few more days and rent it at home. On one hand, it’s great the film is about to become more accessible for everyone, but it also would have been nice if it was only in theaters for a little while longer.
This is another illustration of how much things have changed in the film industry over the past handful of years. During the pandemic, viewers got used to shortened theatrical windows and new movies being available on digital at home, and things aren’t going to go back to the way they were before 2020. Fortunately, Weapons had an extremely lucrative theatrical run, and now Warner Bros. stands to turn even more of a profit with the introduction of a new revenue stream. Considering how acclaimed Weapons is, it should be a hit on digital as more people see what the buzz is all about.
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