“Weapons” crept back to the top of box office charts, collecting a significant $25 million in its second weekend of release. Ticket sales for the R-rated horror film declined just 43% from its $43 million debut, an impressive hold for a genre that’s known to drastically fall after opening weekend.
En route to sleeper hit status, “Weapons” has grossed $89 million domestically and $148 million worldwide after two weekends of release. The film, which cost a modest $38 million, is benefiting from great reviews and electric word-of-mouth. It’s the fifth consecutive hit for Warner Bros. following “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines” and “Superman.” Fortunes have reversed for the studio after starting the year with such financial misfires as “Mickey 17” and “The Alto Knights.”
This weekend’s only major new release, Universal’s action thriller “Nobody 2,” didn’t pack too strong a punch. The film, starring Bob Odenkirk as a seemingly mild-mannered dad who actually kicks ass and takes names, landed at No. 3 with $9.2 million from 3,260 North American theaters. That’s just barely ahead of its predecessor, 2021’s “Nobody,” which debuted to $6.8 million domestically while cinemas were just starting to reopen and playing to limited capacity after COVID. Overseas, the movie added $4.9 million for a global tally of $14.1 million.
Timo Tjahjanto took over directing duties from the original’s filmmaker Ilya Naishuller. In the follow-up, Odenkirk’s character Hutch Mansell takes his family on vacation to the small tourist town of Plummerville and finds himself in the crosshairs of several shady locals. Audience scores for the sequel weren’t as positive as the first; “Nobody 2” earned a “B+” grade on CinemaScore compared to the original’s “A-” grade. “Nobody 2” was modestly priced at $25 million, just above the first film’s $16 million price tag.
“‘Nobody 1’ cost very little to make for a studio action picture and was comfortably profitable,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “‘Nobody 2’ is an opportunity to earn a few more dollars without a lot of risk. At [its] price, the picture should make money.”
In second place, Disney’s “Freakier Friday” also enjoyed a solid second weekend with $14.5 million from 3,975 venues, a 50% decline from its opening. The PG sequel, reuniting Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis as mother and daughter who swap places, has earned $54.6 million in North America and $86.3 million worldwide after 10 days of release.
Another Disney film, the Marvel superhero adventure “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” plunged to the No. 4 spot with $8.8 million in its fourth weekend of release. After a promising $117 million bow, “Fantastic Four” has been quickly losing steam at the box office with ticket sales at $247 million in North America and $468.7 million worldwide after four weekends. Those returns are above this year’s prior Marvel entries, February’s “Captain America: Brave New World” ($415 million globally) and May’s “Thunderbolts” ($382 million globally). But after a rocky post-pandemic stretch, this performance doesn’t yet signal a return to box office glory for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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“The Bad Guys 2” rounded out the top five with $6.9 million in its third outing. Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s heist comedy has generated $56 million domestically and $117 million globally. By comparison, the first “Bad Guys” was a slow-and-steady hit with $250 million over the course of its entire run.
In sixth place, “Superman” added $5.3 million in its sixth weekend in theaters. The comic book adaptation from Warner Bros. and DC has grossed $340 million in North America and $594 million worldwide to date. In a matter of days, it’ll become one of six films this year to cross the $600 million mark.
Elsewhere, Sydney Sweeney’s crime thriller “Americana” cratered with $500,000 from 1,110 locations for a dismal start in 16th place. It’s one of the worst openings in history for a film that landed on more than 1,000 screens. Co-starring Paul Walter Hauser, Halsey and Eric Dane, the Western follows a gaggle of characters on the trail of a rare Native American artifact. Lionsgate acquired the film at SXSW in 2023 and pre-sold international rights, which helps to recoup losses for underperforming theatrical releases.
“The film was made in 2022 and finished in 2023, so it’s been sitting for over two years,” says Gross. “Time to get it out, move it through its release windows, and put it on TV to generate some income.”
The overall box office is 6.4% ahead of last year — a margin that has been shrinking over the past few weeks. In early July, for example, revenues were 16% ahead of 2024. And returns for the four-month stretch that comprises the summer season are stalling at $3.4 billion through mid-August. That likely means the movie theater industry’s goal of hitting the elusive $4 billion mark — a once-common milestone that has only been achieved one time since the pandemic — won’t be within reach.
“Alas, it’s not in the cards at this point,” says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian of the $4 billion mark. “That said, it’s been an amazing summer movie season.”
From Variety US