‘Weapons’ beats ‘Freakier Friday’ in global box office faceoff

Warner Bros – flying high at the summer’s global box office with DC Studios’ Superman and Apple’s F1 – has another hit on its hands with the release of Zach Cregger’s Weapons.

The New Line horror has debuted with an estimated $42.5m in North America, $27.5m from 72 international markets, and thus $70.0m globally – topping Comscore’s worldwide weekend chart ahead of fellow new release Freakier Friday.

New Line won Barbarian director Cregger’s spec script in a studio bidding war, reportedly paying him $10m to write, direct and produce the film, and committing a $38m budget overall. The risk has paid off.

UK/Ireland leads international markets with an estimated $3.6m weekend haul, including Thursday previews, topping the box office. Next come Mexico (an estimated $2.7m), France (a five-day $2.0m), Australia ($1.8m) and Spain ($1.6m). Saudia Arabia, Brazil and Germany are all an estimated $1m or above, and just below are Indonesia (an estimated $916,000) and United Arab Emirates ($889,000).

Those territory numbers are important – showing the film is working in markets across Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Asia-Pacific.

Imax delivered an estimated $8.1m globally for Weapons – 12% of the total.

The Rashomon-structured tale – in which all but one of a school’s elementary class of 18 children run off into the night and disappear – is told from the perspective of the class teacher (Julia Garner), a cop (Alden Ehrenreich), a homeless drug addict (Austin Abrams), the father of a missing boy (Josh Brolin), the school principal (Benedict Wong) and the only child from the class who didn’t run off (Cary Christopher). Amy Madigan also stars.

Weapons earned an A- CinemaScore rating in North America, and has connected with critics (currently an 81 Metascore). Horror films usually see steep week-to-week declines, but Weapons’ audience ratings, plus the character-driven film’s broader genre positioning (including mystery and dark comedy) might encourage Warner Bros to hope for sustained success.

‘Freakier Friday’ lands runner-up spot with $44.5m launch

While Disney’s Freakier Friday lost the global box office battle to Weapons, the belated sequel’s numbers should do just fine. Nisha Ganatra’s film has debuted with an estimated $29.0m in North America and $15.5m across 46 international markets – combining to deliver $44.5m worldwide.

The film is a sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday, which reached $110.2m in North America, plus $50.6m for international, and thus $160.8m worldwide. (These numbers are not adjusted for inflation.)

Freakier Friday proved strong in Latin America, opening at the top spot in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay. Top international market was Mexico (an estimated $2.8m), ahead of UK/Ireland ($2.4m) and Australia. Next come four Latin markets – Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Peru (all estimated in the $600,000-800,000 range) – ahead of both Germany ($600,000) and France ($500,000).

Disney estimates that Freakier Friday has reached 85% of its international footprint. Key markets yet to open include South Korea (set for August 27) and Japan (September 5).

Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reprise their roles from Freaky Friday, this time both swapping bodies with a teenager – the daughter and prospective step-daughter of Lohan’s character (Julia Butters, Sophia Hammons).

‘Dead To Rights’ hits $300m in China

Chinese historical drama Dead To Rights – which topped the worldwide box office the previous weekend – has fallen to third place. Estimated weekend takings of $41.5m bring the total after 17 days of play to $306.7m. This is the biggest haul for a Chinese film since Spring Festival releases including Ne Zha 2 ($2.1bn) and Detective Chinatown 1900 ($503m).

The film is set against events of the Nanjing Massacre (1937-8) during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Also in Comscore’s worldwide top 10 chart for the August 8-10 weekend are Chinese films Nobody and Dongji Rescue.

Like Dead To Rights before it, Nobody has seen a big box office rise in its second weekend of play. Estimated weekend takings of $35.0m bring the total after nine days to $76.9m. The animation sees a pilgrimage of animal characters, and is adapted from the classical mythological novel Journey To The West.

Dongji Rescue has opened with an estimated $27.1m. Guan Hu’s $80m-budget Chinese war epic tells the story of the 1942 sinking of the Lisbon Maru, in which prisoners of war were rescued by Chinese fishermen after it was torpedoed by a US submarine. These events were also covered in 2024 documentary The Sinking Of The Lisbon Maru.

The fourth non-US film in the weekend top 10 chart is Japanese anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle. Estimated takings of $14.6m in Japan and Taiwan bring the total for Haruo Sotozaki’s film to $145.6m. In 2020, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Mugen Train grossed $485.5m worldwide including $365.7m in Japan, according to available data.

‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ teeters on edge of $800m

Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth added an estimated $20.8m worldwide at the weekend bringing its total to just a few thousand dollars shy of $800m. The film is the second biggest of the summer season globally, behind Lilo & Stitch ($1.03bn), and also the third-biggest US studio film this year, behind Lilo and also A Minecraft Movie ($955m).

So far this summer (from the start of May), six films have hit $500m worldwide: Lilo & Stitch, Jurassic World Rebirth, How To Train Your Dragon ($624m), Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ($595.5m), Superman ($578.8m) and F1 ($570.6m). Disney will hope that The Fantastic Four: First Steps (currently $434.2m) will have enough momentum to join them.

F1, which saw a 33% drop globally at the weekend, has shown the most impressive staying power of any of these release – still in the worldwide top 10 chart in its seventh week of play. Superman, with estimated weekend takings of $13.6m worldwide, has just dropped out of the top 10. The film is in its fifth week of play.

Also missing from the August 8-10 top 10 chart is Paramount’s The Naked Gun, which grossed an estimated $14.5m for the weekend, just behind F1. Total after two weekends globally is $56.4m.

Making the top 10 is Universal/DreamWorks’ The Bad Guys 2 which is now in its second weekend of play in North America and is continuing its international expansion. Global total is $84.0m.

The animal caper is a sequel to 2022’s The Bad Guys, which is adapted from Aaron Blabey’s graphic novel series, and grossed $250.4m worldwide.

Universal reports that, with $40.5m so far for international, The Bad Guys 2 is performing ahead of its predecessor at the same point in those markets.

Source: Screen Daily

--Agencies