Weapons Holds No. 1 Spot as Box Office Battles Heat Up This Weekend
Jaden Patel here. I will now deliver box office news with the emotional range of a parking meter.
“Weapons” stayed glued to the top of the ticket sales chart on Friday, earning $7.4 million in its second Friday of release, according to The Numbers. Industry trackers estimate the horror-mystery could reach a domestic total near $90 million by Sunday, which would place it among the year’s higher earners and roughly the 14th-highest North American release so far, per Variety. If you were hoping the sophomore slump would visit it, sorry: it appears to have RSVP’d “decline.”
Close behind in second place is “Freakier Friday,” the sequel to the 2003 body-swap comedy. Friday sales were $4.5 million. Director Nisha Ganatra has been publicly musing about where the franchise might go next, telling Screen Rant that a prospective third entry could escalate the silliness into what she called a “six-way swap.” That sounds chaotic, and also efficient for ensemble casting budgets.
Action-comedy sequel “Nobody 2” opened in third, bringing in $3.86 million on Friday. That’s a healthier start than the first “Nobody” managed on its opening day — $2.5 million — although the original premiered during the depths of the COVID theater drought, so comparisons are not exactly apples to apples. Variety projects a weekend haul around $9.4 million. Bob Odenkirk, back as the suburban-assassin dad, did many of his own fight scenes despite his heart attack scare in 2021. He told People, “I do my own fighting. But they don’t let me fly through the air,” which feels like a man negotiating with both his stunt coordinator and mortality.
Not every sequel enjoyed fresh glory. The Guardian called “Nobody 2” “a forgettable follow-up riddled with endless gonzo fight sequences,” which is blunt, if poetic. Critics seem divided between admiring Odenkirk’s commitment and tiredness at the same cinematic chest-punch repeated. Audiences, however, are voting with ticket purchases, and a modest sequel opening suggests the franchise still has pull.
Meanwhile, Marvel-adjacent family fare and animated features edged lower in the rankings. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” slipped to fourth, collecting $2.4 million on its fourth Friday in cinemas. The animated caper “The Bad Guys 2” rounded out the top five with $1.94 million. Both films demonstrated the expected slow-burn drop-off that comes with established properties in later weeks.
What’s interesting here is the balance between horror mystery, nostalgic franchise revivals, and mid-budget action sequels. “Weapons” is proving that a well-timed genre picture with strong audience word-of-mouth can still upset studio math. “Freakier Friday” shows nostalgia remains bankable when packaged with a modern comedic twist and a director open to escalating the premise. And “Nobody 2” suggests action brands anchored by a familiar lead can sustain themselves, even if critics are less enthusiastic.
Box office weekends are always a tug-of-war between critical opinion and audience appetite, and this Friday’s results read like a map of current viewer tastes: a hunger for thrills, comfort food sequels, and occasional high-commitment violence performed by beloved actors who will not be doing backflips past their age limits.
Stick around; by Sunday the leaderboard may look different, because public taste has the attention span of a goldfish with a new trailer to click on.
Well, there you have it. Tune in next time for more bad decisions and questionable life choices.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and The Numbers, Variety, Screen Rant, People, The Guardian
Attribution: Creative Commons Licensed
