Weapons box office: Zach Cregger's low-budget horror is #1 film in the world; beats The Fantastic Four, Freakier Friday

The horror film, Weapons, scored a major victory at the box office on its opening weekend, earning almost twice its budget in three days.

Updated on: Aug 11, 2025, 08:40:18 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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Sinners walked so that Weapons could run! 2025 has been the year of horror for world cinema. The latest sensation is Zach Cregger's chilling and haunting film, Weapons. After earning critical acclaim, the film has also set the box office on fire, far surpassing expectations with its opening weekend haul.

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)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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