Weapons vs. Freakier Friday Box Office Battle Has Clear Winner

Heading into the weekend, box office projections had new arrivals Weapons and Freakier Friday in a neck and neck race for first place. Now that some actual numbers are starting to come in, a clear winner in that showdown has emerged. According to Deadline, after grossing $18 million on Friday, Weapons is now estimated to have a very strong debut somewhere between $40-43 million domestically. That puts it well ahead of Freakier Friday; the comedy legacy sequel grossed $12.7 million in its first day and is now on pace to earn between $30-32 million for the weekend.

While Weapons should easily claim the No. 1 position, both films have reason to celebrate. Because of their moderate production budgets (Weapons, $38 million; Freakier Friday, $45 million), the two films are well on their way to turning a nice profit during their respective theatrical runs.

Weapons and Freakier Friday are on track to exceed their box office projections. Initial estimates heading into the weekend had the former pegged for a $25-30 million debut and the latter for a $27-30 million opening. Both were expected to beat out The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which should come in third place this weekend after holding on to the top spot for the past two weeks.

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Word of mouth seems to have had a positive impact on Weapons‘ and Freakier Friday‘s box office prospects. While the two films couldn’t be more different in terms of tone and style, one similarity they share is that they’re both Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating they were worth checking out on the big screen. In the case of Weapons, early reactions called the horror film “a masterpiece,” and its deliberately mysterious marketing campaign generated a strong amount of buzz leading up to the premiere.

Weapons is just the latest example of Warner Bros. Discovery reaping the benefits of the horror genre this year. Sinners ($365.8 million worldwide) and Final Destination Bloodlines ($285.3 million) were massive commercial hits earlier this year, helping turn the company’s box office fortunes around after a shaky start to the year. It’s easy to forget that at the beginning of 2025, there were fears that Warner Bros. was in danger of being sold off due to multiple box office flops. Since then, WBD has released A Minecraft Movie, Superman, and the aforementioned trio of horror movies. Deadline notes that this weekend will be the 11th time this year a WBD movie has won the domestic box office weekend, so the company is in excellent shape moving forward (see: a new Final Destination film being announced).

It’s great to see another acclaimed, original horror film find success at the marketplace. Weapons is shaping up to be a massive win for director Zach Cregger, who is now firmly on the map as one of the industry’s rising filmmaking talents. He’s working on a new Resident Evil movie next, but if that one is also a hit, he should have the clout to pursue whatever project he wants — including, perhaps, his DC script following one of Joker’s henchmen.