Josh Brolin’s Horror Flick ‘Weapons’ Shoots to No.1 with $18.2M Friday Opening
Quinn Parker here, and yes I had too much coffee — grab a mug because box-office chaos is on the menu! Okay, let me spill: the horror movie Weapons exploded into theaters and snagged the top spot on Friday with a reported $18.2 million in one-day ticket sales, according to The Numbers, and people are already buzzing about a possible $30+ million opening weekend.
First things first, this isn’t fluff — the numbers are real and the buzz is justified. Weapons
Now, don’t think this was the only headline-grabber this weekend. Lindsay Lohan made a respectable comeback with Freakier Friday, the long-awaited follow-up to the 2003 body-swap classic. The sequel, which reunites Jamie Lee Curtis with the franchise and positions Lohan in a grown-up role, earned $12.7 million on Friday and is tracking toward an estimated $32 million opening weekend. Jamie Lee Curtis spoke with USA Today and explained why the sequel took more than two decades: producers simply couldn’t make a believable story until Lohan was old enough to play a mother to a 15-year-old. That practical casting timeline gives the sequel a nostalgia-with-a-twist sell that worked for audiences this weekend.
Meanwhile, superhero fatigue might be real because The Fantastic Four: First Steps slipped two spots to third, pulling in $4.5 million for Friday of its third week. Disney’s Marvel-adjacent effort has seen sharp percentage drops and drew comment from Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger, who argued the studio treated this iteration as an original introduction for audiences unfamiliar with the characters — a positioning that helps explain both the marketing push and the uneven box-office reaction.
Family fare kept chugging: The Bad Guys 2 eased down to fourth with $3.07 million as the animated sequel continued its steady run. Collider reports the film reached $50 million globally in under a week, outpacing the total run of Pixar’s 2021 title Luca — notable for the animated genre and proving family audiences still turn out when given the right mix of humor and heart.
Rounding out the top five is the legacy comedy sequel The Naked Gun, starring Liam Neeson, which dipped to fifth with $2.37 million. Despite the fall, it’s become Neeson’s biggest box-office performer of the decade, a reminder that star power and recognizable properties still matter to certain ticket buyers.
So what’s the takeaway from this caffeine-fueled weekend? Horror’s appetite is real when it delivers fresh scares and star power. Nostalgia sells, whether it’s a mother-daughter body-swap reboot or a legacy comedy brand revived for a new era. And superhero properties need careful positioning if they want to avoid weekend erosion. Box-office math is messy, but these results — sourced from The Numbers, The New York Post, Collider, and USA Today — paint a picture of a movie market still hungry for variety.
Okay, I need to calm down after that! But keep your eyes peeled: with weekend totals finalizing and industry chatter ramping up, next week could bring more twists. I swear, I could talk about this all day.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and The New York Post, The Numbers, Collider, USA Today
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
