The 1-2 punch of Weapons and Freakier Friday were about to land their third punch at the top of the box office this weekend. You can do that when moviegoers want to see those films and show no interest in its challengers from week-to-week, which included Nobody 2 last week and now another Ethan (with no Joel) Coen comic mystery, a thriller with Riz Ahmed and Lily James, and maybe the least Ron Howard-like film of his career. But hold up. There’s also a film from Netflix… that has been available on Netflix for two months. But it only took two days in theaters for it to reportedly win the box office… if there is a report, anyway.
King of the Crop: Weapons Takes No. 1 Again… or Does It?
As of this moment, there are only sources saying that KPop Demon Hunters has bested everyone at the box office, but Netflix is not officially reporting yet.
So, for the time being, there is just no stopping Weapons. It is the film of the moment, and it earned another $15.6 million this weekend to bring its total up to $115.8 million. Zach Cregger’s film (unofficially) would become just the 14th August release to remain atop the box office for three straight weeks.
That is a list that includes: The Fugitive, The Sixth Sense, Guardians of the Galaxy, Crazy Rich Asians, Suicide Squad, Signs, The Help, Straight Outta Compton, American Pie 2, Tropic Thunder, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Unforgiven, and 1995’s Mortal Kombat. Only the first six films on that list had a higher third weekend than Weapons. For the whole of August, with 17-day releases, Weapons currently rests between G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($120.2 million) and Talladega Nights ($114.3 million). Those films finished with $150.2 million and $148.2 million, respectively, and Weapons had a better third weekend than either of them. That means that a domestic gross of around $160 million is very much in play. Globally the film is about to pass $200 million on Monday, making it the third horror film of the year to achieve that. Can the genre make it four this year for the first time since 2018? Every film in The Conjuring series has done it, and it is up next on Sept. 5, which means Warner Bros. would own all four of them.
Fresh Surprise: Netflix’s Kpop Demon Hunters Sing-Along May Be the Real Winner
Released on Netflix back on June 20, the animated KPop Demon Hunters apparently struck a chord. By the end of July, the streamer announced it had become the “most watched original animated film of all-time” on the platform. According to their numbers, the film had been viewed over 184 million times in eight weeks, making it the second-most popular English-language film for them. Next thing you know, it’s getting a two-day release in theaters with a “sing-along” version. But would Netflix release the box office numbers, or wouldn’t they? As of publication, consider that reports have the film grossing an estimated $18 million on Saturday and Sunday in 1,700 theaters. Rian Johnson’ Glass Onion opened to a cool $9.4 million in just 696 theaters when Netflix briefly put it in theaters over Thanksgiving in 2022.
Tales of the top 10: Honey Don’t! Stumbles, Superman Eyes $600 Million Worldwide
Continuing its own three-week run at second place, Disney’s Freakier Friday grossed another $9.2 million to bring its 17-day total to $70.5 million. The film continues to ride the Bullet Train pace. That film’s march to $105 million saw a stop in its third weekend with $8.02 million and a total of $69.01 million. Animated films may have a problem in August, but this live-action family film will continue to benefit from the late summer studio dumps, plus the upcoming Labor Day holiday for an additional boost. Out of 20 films in August to gross between $8-10 million in their third weekend, nine of them reached $100 million and all but one of them (Open Range) finished between $82-114 million. Only four of those finished with less than $90 million. Freakier Friday is at $113 million globally.
Disney is also watching the numbers for Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which took a step back up to third place this week with $5.9 million. After a full month, the film is at $257.2 million, following its pace car, The Matrix Reloaded. That film had $5.7 million in weekend five and $255.6 million in 31 days. First Steps could ride that to over $280 million domestic, which alone would guarantee its $500+ million finish worldwide. It is already nearly there at $490 million, which is more than Captain America: Brave New World ($415.1 million) and Thunderbolts* ($382.4 million), and it will be the eighth U.S. release to cross half a billion this year. Only nine did that in all of 2024.
Universal is finishing the summer with a pair of disappointments. The Bad Guys 2 finished its fourth weekend with $5.1 million. At $66.1 million after 24 days, the film is nearly $5 million behind the pace of Disney’s Planes, though slightly ahead of Pete’s Dragon. Bad Guys 2 had a lower fourth weekend than either of them. Somewhere around $80 million domestic is in the cards, which is lower than the $97.4 million of the original April 2022 release, when kids were close to getting out of school rather than returning to it. The film is also just over halfway to the $152 million international haul of the original with $82.9 million. If it can get that number up to $120 million, The Bad Guys 2 may just be able to pull out a win on the books before leaving theaters.
Universal also had Nobody 2 take a 60% tumble in the rankings this week from third place down to fifth with $3.7 million. Its total stands at $16.5 million, making it unlikely to even hit the $25-30 million finish suggested by its opening last week. Another $11.6 million overseas so far is not going to translate to a victory for Universal on this one, and we may have seen the last of Hutch Mansell.
Focus Features was in the middle of a terrible run of openings in early 2024 with Lisa Frankenstein, The American Society of Magical Negroes, and Back to Black. Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls was right in the middle of that run, where a $4 million opening seemed elusive. The good news is his latest collaboration with Margaret Qualley, Honey Don’t!, did better than Drive-Away Dolls’ $2.4 million opening. The bad news is that it wasn’t by much, at just $3 million.
Ethan’s historic acclaimed work with brother Joel was never full of gigantic box office successes apart from True Grit ($171.2 million), Burn After Reading ($60.3 million), and their Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men ($74.2 million), which benefitted from its awards run. Beyond that, they only had one other film gross over $40 million (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and another three get over $30 million (The Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty, Hail Caesar!). Part of that was due to many of their films getting platformed, but the lowest opening they ever had for a film starting in over 1,000 theaters was The Big Lebowski ($5.53 million in 1,207 venues). Drive-Away Dolls opened in 2,280 theaters and finished with $5.02 million. Honey Don’t may be a slight improvement, opening in only 1,317 theaters, but even critics aren’t backing this one. The lowest critical score Ethan ever received with brother Joel was 54% for The Ladykillers, and it remains the only rotten score on their resume. Honey Don’t! is currently Rotten at 45%.
James Gunn’s Superman finally passed $600 million worldwide this week. It is the sixth U.S. release to hit that number in 2025. Though it finally dropped out of the top 10, F1: The Movie also did it this week, putting another $1.8 million on the board to bring its domestic total to $185.9 million. (Globally the film is now over $603 million.) Back to Superman, though, which may have bested Man of Steel’s (non-inflated) numbers domestically, as it is about to hit $347 million with $3.4 million this week, but MoS is still the global winner with $670 million compared to $604.5 million. Again, that’s before accounting for inflation. Supergirl and Clayface are next for the DCU in 2026, and to say they cannot be expecting Superman-level numbers for them should be on everyone’s radar.
The Naked Gun is down to eighth place in its fourth weekend with $2.9 million. It now stands at $47.5 million and may be able to get itself over $55 million, but with just $80 million worldwide so far, it appears it will not profit itself by the time it leaves theaters. In its eighth weekend in the top 10, Jurassic World: Rebirth made $2.1 million to bring its domestic total up to $335.5 million, right on target for the $340 million-ish we’ve been saying for weeks. Globally the film is over $844 million for another major profit for Universal, even if it’s still down over $150 million from Dominion’s global grosses.
Finally, David MacKenzie’s Relay with Riz Ahmed, Lily James, and Sam Worthington, which debuted at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival, made $1.9 million in 1,483 theaters this weekend. These are the best opening numbers for Bleecker Street since last year’s sci-fi thriller I.S.S. opened in January to $3.06 million in 2,518 theaters. Since its inception in 2015, the studio has only had one film open to over $4 million, and that was Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky ($7.6 million), which also happened to be the only film they ever opened in over 3,000 theaters. All things being said, Relay is now the eighth-best opening in Bleecker Street’s history.
Beyond the Top 10: Ne Zha II Finally Arrives in the US
A24 has re-released Ne Zha II in a dubbed version for audiences. In August. When animated releases are not a great idea. Does anyone read the column? Anyway, the film was already released in its original language back on Valentine’s Day, and it grossed $20.8 million — not bad for a foreign release in live-action or animation. But if you have been reading this column, you know that is chump change for the film, which has already grossed $1.879 billion (with a B) internationally, making it the global champion of the year. Only Avatar and Avengers: Endgame have grossed more money overseas. The highest domestic release overseas this year has been Lilo & Stitch with over $606 million. Regardless, Ne Zha II grossed another $1.55 million in the States, which, if you’re doing the math, means it has now made $1.880 billion plus $1.55 million more this weekend.
Ron Howard’s Eden also debuted at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. (This year’s edition begins on Sept. 4.) This weekend it debuted in theater with $1.4 million in just over 660 theaters. To say that is the lowest debut in theaters for a Howard film would be an understatement. It is also the first time since 1977’s Grand Theft Auto that one of his films was not put out by one of the major distributors. Vertical Entertainment handled this release, which is a pretty good get for them, with a cast including Jude Law, Sydney Sweeney, Ana De Armas, Daniel Bruhl, and Vanessa Kirby. But it was only their fourth-best opening after last year’s second Russell Crowe exorcist movie, The Exorcism ($2.45 million), this year’s Josh Hartnett actioner, Fight or Flight ($2.0 million), and even the infamous John Travolta vehicle Gotti ($1.71 million) in 2018.
Neon’s release of Splitsville, Michael Angelo Covino’s follow-up to his critically-acclaimed The Climb, which got snakebit by the pandemic in 2020, opened to $105,000 in five theaters. That is the 13th-best per-theater average of the year ($21,000), although the best for Neon, who have had more wide releases in 2025 than in any other year of their existence. Splitsville will go wider on Sept. 5. Not far behind on the PTA scale is Mubi’s release of Alex Russell’ Lurker, which opened to $64,000 in four theaters. It will expand further next week and then also go wider on Sept. 5.
On the Vine: Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go Back in the Water, Jaws Returns
There are plenty of releases for Labor Day weekend, but when one of the greatest and biggest films of all time is getting a 50th Anniversary re-release, it’s best to lead with that. Steven Spielberg’s Jaws will be back in theaters for everyone to revel in once again. Coming up against it will Jay Roach’s remake of Danny DeVito’s The War of the Roses. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman step into the roles originally played by Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner for The Roses. Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz star in Darren Aronofsky’s action-comedy Caught Stealing. Macon Blair’s re-imagining of The Toxic Avenger with Peter Dinklage finally premieres after debuting at Fantastic Fest in 2023. And lastly, speaking of long delays, look for Angus MacLachlan’s A Little Prayer with David Strathairn and Jane Levy, being released by Music Box Films after debuting at Sundance in 2023.
Full List of Box Office Results: August 22-24, 2025
- KPop Demon Hunters – $18 million? ($18 million total) – Estimated / Weapons – $15.6 million ($115.8 million total)
- Freakier Friday – $9.2 million ($70.5 million total)
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps – $5.9 million ($257.2 million total)
- The Bad Guys 2 – $5.1 million ($66.1 million total)
- Nobody 2 – $3.7 million ($16.5 million total)
- Superman – $3.4 million ($346.9 million total)
- Honey Don’t! – $3.0 million ($3.0 million total)
- The Naked Gun – $2.9 million ($47.5 million total)
- Jurassic World: Rebirth – $2.1 million ($335.5 million total)
- Relay – $1.9 million ($1.9 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 Quantrell Colbert/©Warner Bros., ©Netflix
