Over 36 weekends in 2025, only six have had an original screenplay lead the way. Three of those weekends were dominated by Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Novocaine had a brief stint with the lowest No. 1 tally of the year. Flight Risk was the first, and F1: The Movie was the last. (Mickey 17 and A Working Man were based on books, for those looking.) This weekend we had the seventh, with Zach Cregger drawing more interest in his mysterious new horror film than Disney trotting out a sequel after 22 years.
King of the Crop: Weapons Racks Up Another big Win for Warner Bros.
Zach Cregger, the sketch comedian turned horror director, had a solid little word-of-mouth hit with Barbarian back in 2022 for 20th Century Studios. It opened to $10.5 million in September and went on to gross over $40 million. His sophomore effort now for Warner Bros., Weapons, just beat it outright by opening to an incredible $42.5 million. After wondering where horror fans were for fresh new titles, it is turning into quite a year, especially for WB, who had Ryan Coogler’s Sinners and now this (and let’s not forget bringing back Final Destination: Bloodlines, which became one of the most successful films of the year). Along with A Minecraft Movie, F1, and Superman, this makes six straight openings of over $40 million for the studio, the first time that has ever happened.
The $38 million-budgeted Weapons joins a number of successful August openings for horror over the years, including Signs ($60.1 million), The Meg ($47 million), Alien: Romulus ($42 million), Alien Vs. Predator ($38.2 million), Freddy vs. Jason ($36.4 million), Annabelle: Creation (#5 million), and Meg 2: The Trench ($30 million). Weapons is just as impressive, if not more so, given it’s not part of a series or based on an existing property. Three of those films took a dip and did not reach $100 million, but all of them reached at least $80 million. Weapons will have that by next weekend. International audiences only spent $4.5 million on Barbarians. They chipped in $27.5 million for Weapons this weekend, giving it a $70 million launch. Critics have also made their voices heard, making Weapons Certified Fresh at 95% to make it one of the best-reviewed films of the year.
Tales of the top 10: Freakier Friday Secures a Solid Debut, Jurassic World Rebirth eyes $800 Million Worldwide
Freakier Friday — (deep breath) the sequel to the 2003 hit remake of the successful 1976 Jodie Foster/Barbara Harris adaptation of Mary Rodgers’ 1972 children’s novel — opened to $29 million this weekend. That’s not even mentioning the television versions in 1995 and 2018. Sticking to the Jamie Lee Curtis/Lindsay Lohan universe, though, their 2003 version opened to $22.2 million (roughly $38.9 million with inflation), so this is a solid if not headline-grabbing start. Disney must be thinking, “If only we opened Hocus Pocus 2 theatrically.” How about Happy Gilmore 2, Netflix?
Funny how Disney has not had a solid presence in the month of August over the years, apart from the first Guardians of the Galaxy, both M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs and The Sixth Sense, and The Help. Those are their top openers. Yet on the family side, they have had both Princess Diaries films open this month and 2003’s Freaky Friday, of course. Planes is one of the rare successful animated films of August, as well as David Lowery’s criminally underappreciated retelling of Pete’s Dragon. Curtis and Lohan’s 2003 film went on to gross $110 million, which has been the ceiling for their August family films (or $193 million, to play the inflation game). Freakier Friday would love to reach at least one of those numbers, and with a budget of $42 million, that would be more than a success. The 2003 version cost just $20 million and added another $50 million globally. Freakier Friday started with $15.5 million internationally for a global opening of $44.5 million.
There was a lot of focus last week on the (insert your own negative sounding adjective here) drop of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Despite that, it still only took 11 days for it to pass Captain America: Brave New World (and less to beat Thunderbolts*). Hold the phone, though, as the film took another 60% dive this weekend to $15.5 million. That is only the third time a film in the MCU has fallen 60% or more in its third weekend, the other two times being Thor: Ragnarok (62% down to $21.6 million) and Thor: The Dark World (61.2% down to $14.1 million). First Steps is well ahead of the latter now with $230.4 million, but it is clear that it will not reach $300 million domestic. The Matrix Reloaded had a $15.6 million third weekend and $228.2 million after 17 days, so First Steps is probably headed somewhere between $270-280 million. That would rank eighth in the post-Endgame MCU out of 15 films. The combined international math putting the film now at $434 million should still make it the 27th MCU film to gross half a billion around the world, against 11 that have not. Still a pretty good batting average, even if eight of those films are post-pandemic.
The August Animation Curse does not appear to be subsiding for The Bad Guys 2, though the film will look better than most of the month’s family releases. It fell 51% to $10.4 million in its second weekend compared to the 32% of the original to $16.2 million back in April/May 2022. Kids haven’t returned to school just yet, so the weekday dollars have the film at $43.4 million after 10 days, whereas the first film was at $44.5 million. After a third weekend drop of 41%, the original Bad Guys had five consecutive drops between 12-29%. That’s what Part 2 will need to have any chance at getting close to the original’s gross. Right now the film appears below the flight path of Planes, which had a $13.3 million second weekend and finished with just over $90 million. The Bad Guys 2 will likely be closer to $75 million. Globally the $80 million production is at $83.9 million.
The Naked Gun reboot got off to a lukewarm start last weekend and would have loved to have remained in the eight-digit category for weekend two, but it will settle for $8.3 million. That drives its 10-day run up to $33 million and puts it in the path of very different August releases. They include The Possession ($9.31 million second weekend, $33.16 million 10-day total), Brian DePalma’s Snake Eyes ($8.63 million, $31.6 million), and the 2004 Jet Li film Hero ($8.8 million, $32.5 million). That sets The Naked Gun up for a finish in the $50-55 million range like recent big screen comedies One of Them Days and No Hard Feelings.
James Gunn’s Superman is over $578 million worldwide, which, conservatively, should be enough to have the film in profit. Most of that is thanks to its North American audience, which spent another $7.8 million this weekend to bring its 31-day total to $331.2 million. That is 55th all time for the record keepers. Though the weekend is similar, Superman is behind the pace of Jurassic World: Dominion and Spider-Man 2, narrowing its final landing to around $355-365 million. Gunn’s film has passed up both Shazam and Black Adam on the international side but seems unlikely to reach Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, which topped out at $302 million, and certainly not Man of Steel’s $377 million. It will be just the second comic book film (Deadpool & Wolverine being the other) to reach $600 million since the release of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2023. That is two out of 13 films, including The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The numbers may continue to fall within the Jurassic series, but Jurassic World: Rebirth has had a consistent line on tickets this summer. Here we are in weekend six, and it has grossed another $4.7 million to bring its 40-day total to $326.8 million. That ranks 66th all time. Jurassic World is sixth, Fallen Kingdom is 32nd, and Dominion is 48th. Those are certainly numbers Universal can live with, especially as it passes $800 million worldwide on Monday, something only 10 other films can say they achieved since 2023. The film appears set to finish its domestic run in the $340 million realm.
It has been quite a ride for F1: The Movie. Seven weeks in the top 10 with over $178 million. Another $392 million more overseas represents Brad Pitt’s highest international haul of all time. Globally the film is over $570 million, and by its most conservative budget reporting, it should be considered a success. We’re sure Apple will survive if it is not. With direct horror competition this week, Together took a fall down to $2.6 million. In 12 days it has grossed $17.2 million and will scratch and claw to become just the fifth film in Neon’s repertoire to gross over $20 million.
Angel Studios’ pickup of last year’s Toronto Fest premiere of Seth Worley’s Sketch does not exactly fall into their brand of faith-based cinema. Though, in fairness, some of them are life-affirming tales, some even based on true events. Sketch would fit into the latter category as a family film about grief and imagination, and many critics agree, with the film currently at 97% on the Tomatometer. Alas, it made just $2.5 million this weekend and $5 million since opening Wednesday, which is a shame, since if any film in the Angel canon deserves to have some pay-it-forward money go its way, it is this one.
On the Vine: Bob Odenkirk Just Wants to Enjoy His Vacation in Nobody 2
Bob Odenkirk turned into an action star in Nobody, and it grossed over $27 million about a year into the pandemic. He returns in Nobody 2 with The Night Comes for Us director Timo Tjahjanto at the helm, which should be an immediate selling point for serious action fans. Apple is only releasing Spike Lee’s Kurosawa remake, Highest 2 Lowest with Denzel Washington, into theaters for just a few weeks before it heads to the streaming platform. It is currently at 89% on the Tomatometer since its premiere at Cannes in May. Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser star in Americana, which debuted at SXSW in 2023 to some solid reviews, as did East of Wall, which was also well reviewed out of Sundance this year. Also look out for a pair of remakes/updates with Matilda Lutz in Red Sonja and Chuck Russell helming a new version of 1986’s Witchboard.
Full List of Box Office Results: August 8-10, 2025
- Weapons – $42.5 million ($42.5 million total)
- Freakier Friday – $29.0 million ($29.0 million total)
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps – $15.5 million ($230.4 million total)
- The Bad Guys 2 – $10.4 million ($43.4 million total)
- The Naked Gun – $8.3 million ($33.0 million total)
- Superman – $7.8 million ($331.2 million total)
- Jurassic World: Rebirth – $4.7 million ($326.8 million total)
- F1: The Movie – $2.8 million ($178.5 million total)
- Together – $2.6 million ($17.2 million total)
- Sketch – $2.5 million ($5.0 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast.
Thumbnail image by ©Warner Bros. Pictures
