Weapons box office: Zach Cregger's low-budget horror is #1 film in the world; beats The Fantastic Four, Freakier Friday
Weapons box office
The Zach Cregger film earned $42.5 million domestically (in North America) on its opening weekend, securing the top spot easily. It beat the other new release - Lindsay Lohan's Freakier Friday, which earned $29 million in US-Canada over the weekend.
But Weapons' true success lies in its global appeal. Unlike Sinners, the Ryan Coogler film that broke the bank in North America, but did not quite do that well overseas, Weapons has started well outside the US as well. In its opening weekend, Weapons earned $28 million overseas, bringing its global total to $70 million. This made it the highest-grossing film over the weekend worldwide, beating not just Freakier Friday, but big Marvel tentpole The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Both the films earned $30-35 million internationally over the weekend.
Weapons' achievement is stupendous, considering it has a budget of only $38 million, which means it is already at the break-even point, after just the opening weekend.
Weapons and Freakier Friday's box office success
AP quoted Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore, as saying that viral marketing tactics, coupled with strong social media word-of-mouth, boded well for both films' success.
'The top two films could not be more different, and that's what makes this weekend so appealing for moviegoers,' Dergarabedian said. 'Both are perfectly tailored for their audiences to react in real time over the weekend to these films and then post on social media.'
All about Weapons
Weapons transports audiences to the small town of Maybrook, where 17 kids get up and leave their homes at 2:17 am, leaving bewildered parents in their wake. The town is left to navigate the lingering effects of trauma through horror, paranoia and a touch of existential humour.
Weapons generated a lot of buzz for its strong reviews (95% on Rotten Tomatoes). The film joins a stream of successful horror movies this year, its opening numbers coming in just behind Final Destination: Bloodlines and Sinners.
(With AP inputs)
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