{"id":59492,"date":"2025-08-10T16:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T16:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/59492\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T16:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T16:16:07","slug":"weapons-freakier-friday-open-strong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/59492\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Weapons,’ ‘Freakier Friday’ Open Strong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cWeapons<\/a>,\u201d a twisty horror film about a group of missing children, and \u201cFreakier Friday<\/a>,\u201d a body swap comedy, delivered a potent one-two punch at the box office<\/a> this weekend, lifting ticket sales as summer movie season draws to a close.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe films captured the top two spots on the charts, with \u201cWeapons\u201d debuting to $42.5 million and \u201cFreakier Friday\u201d premiering to $29 million. Last weekend\u2019s champ, Disney and Marvel\u2019s \u201cFantastic Four: The First Steps,\u201d surrendered its box office crown, earning $15.5 million in its third weekend of release for a third place finish. After starting strong with a $117.6 million bow, \u201cFantastic Four\u201d has plummeted in subsequent weekends, falling more than 67% in its sophomore frame and another 60% over the past weekend. The superhero film has grossed $230 million domestically and will likely earn less money that \u201cSuperman,\u201d the latest comic book adaptation from its rival DC Films.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWeapons\u201d extends a hot streak for Warner Bros., which released the film through its New Line label. The studio started 2025 with bombs like \u201cMickey 17\u201d and \u201cThe Alto Knights,\u201d but regained its stride with last spring\u2019s \u201cSinners\u201d and \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d and this summer\u2019s \u201cSuperman.\u201d Made for $38 million, \u201cWeapons\u201d is writer-director Zach Cregger\u2019s follow-up to the critically acclaimed \u201cBarbarian,\u201d which was released by 20th Century Studios in 2022 and earned a solid $45.4 million. Cregger\u2019s latest film stars Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong and Amy Madigan. Its success should catapult him to the top of the filmmaking ranks; Cregger has already been enlisted to reboot \u201cResident Evil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney released \u201cFreakier Friday,\u201d a follow-up to the hit 2003 film \u201cFreaky Friday,\u201d bringing back original stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan as a mother and daughter who trade places. With a production budget of $42 million, the family film is off to a strong start. Both \u201cWeapons\u201d and \u201cFreakier Friday\u201d benefitted from strong reviews and word-of-mouth, earning an \u201cA-\u201d and an \u201cA\u201d grade from CinemaScore, respectively. That could set them up nicely for repeat business over the coming weeks. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn fourth place, Universal and DreamWorks Animation\u2019s \u201cThe Bad Guys 2\u2033 picked up $10.4 million in its sophomore outing, a 53% from its opening. That will push the animated sequel\u2019s domestic total to $43.4 million. Its predecessor ended its run with $97 million in North America.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd \u201cThe Naked Gun,\u201d the final release of Paramount\u2019s old regime after the studio\u2019s acquisition by Skydance closed earlier this week, rounded out the top five. The action satire, which stars Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, picked up $8.3 million in its second weekend, bringing its North American haul to $33 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong other new wide releases, Angel Studios, which specializes in faith-based programming, premiered the fantasy comedy \u201cSketch\u201d to $2.5 million. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWeapons,\u201d a twisty horror film about a group of missing children, and \u201cFreakier Friday,\u201d a body swap comedy,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6471,49,48,75,10105,337,8725],"class_list":{"0":"post-59492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-box-office","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-freakier-friday","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-weapons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}