{"id":16366,"date":"2025-08-22T15:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T15:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/16366\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T15:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T15:10:08","slug":"weapons-whizzes-past-100-million-domestically","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/16366\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Weapons’ Whizzes Past $100 Million Domestically"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWho says lightning can\u2019t strike twice and on the same Hollywood studio lot?<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Thursday, writer-director Zach Cregger<\/a>\u2018s Weapons<\/a><\/a> became the second original R-rated pic of the year to achieve the $100 million milestone domestically after Ryan Coogler\u2019s Sinners<\/a> at a time when the overall genre has come under siege. And it\u2019s a triple win on the horror front for Warner Bros.\u2019 film empire, led by Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. The. main studio made Sinners, while New Line<\/a> is home of Weapons and the R-rated Final Destination: Bloodlines franchise reboot, which surprised many in scaring up more than $385 million at the early summer box office<\/a>. Like Bloodlines, Weapons is no slouch overseas for an early worldwide tally of $170 million or thereabouts.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeapons achieved the $100 million North American milestone in its 14th day in release, compared to nine days for Sinners, which opened to $48 million in April. Thanks to winning over critics and audiences alike<\/a>, director Cregger\u2019s buzzy movie came in more than $10 million ahead of expectations when winning the Aug. 8-10 weekend with a $43.5 million domestic opening.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe script for the creepy R-rated pic was the subject of a heated bidding war when the package hit the market. New Line and Warners prevailed over rivals after plunking down $38 million, including a $10 million payday for Cregger to direct, write and produce after he made waves with his debut feature film, 2022\u2019s\u00a0Barbarian, which he both wrote and directed. Sources say he commanded a $20 million fee for his deal to make Sony\u2019s next\u00a0Resident Evil\u00a0movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeapons stars\u00a0Julia Garner as a teacher who learns that 17 of the 18 children in her classroom simultaneously got out of bed and ran off into the night at the exact same time, 2:17 a.m. Josh Brolin\u00a0plays a grieving father who is intent on finding his missing child and is\u00a0suspicious that the young teacher\u00a0<\/a>had something to do with it. Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams and Amy Madigan also star in\u00a0Weapons, which has quite the twist. (Madigan\u2019s performance as the ghoulish and creepy Aunt Gladys is already sparking awards chatter.)<\/p>\n

\n\tYet there\u2019s another reason to be on the lookout for the unforgettable character. Multiple sources tell\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0that Warner Bros. and New Line are already talking with Cregger about making a prequel exploring the origin story of the strange aunt who suddenly arrives in town.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of\u00a0Weapons\u2019 conceits is its chapter structure centering on particular characters, and sources say that Cregger actually had a chapter focused on Gladys and some of her backstory. He ultimately pulled that section from the script for length purposes. Now with the movie\u2019s wild success, that lost chapter would be expanded into a full-length story. Sources say no deals have been made, nor is there any timeline.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s partly because Cregger is already in prep on his next feature \u2014 he wasn\u2019t even in town for the opening of Weapons, as he was in Prague in pre-production on\u00a0Resident Evil.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeapons landed an impressive 96 percent critics\u2019 score on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- CinemaScore from audiences, an almost unheard of grade for a horror pic. Exceptions include Jordan Peele\u2019s seminal horror pic Get Out, which also earned an A- and made Peele one of the most sought-after directors overnight.<\/p>\n

\n\tRival studios add that Warners\u2019 marketing campaign for Weapons was nothing short of brilliant, considering it didn\u2019t want to ruin the surprise and exploit the twist in marketing materials. It also got a coveted two-week berth in coveted Imax auditoriums. All told, Imax and other premium large-format screens turned in a huge 34 percent of the opening weekend gross.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeading into its opening this spring, Sinners had the advantage of being shepherded by Coogler, one of Hollywood\u2019s most proven directors and the filmmaker behind the Black Panther and Creed franchises. The pic also reunited him with his go-star, Michael B. Jordan. <\/p>\n

\n\tSinners has grossed north of $278 domestically to become the first original movie since Disney\u2019s Coco in 2017 to earn north of $200 million in North America. And it has narrowly bested Jaws \u2014 not adjusted for inflation \u2014 to rank as the top-grossing R-rated horror film ever domestically, although its worldwide tally of $366 million puts it well behind Jaws\u2019 global cume of $477 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeapons was the seventh Warner Bros. release of the year to open in first place, an unrivaled feat, as well as its sixth title in a row to open to more than $40 million domestically, also an unrivaled record. The studio is also getting ready to celebrate DC Studios\u2019 and James Gunn\u2019s Superman crossing the $600 million milestone on Friday, while F1: The Movie, released in partnership with Apple Original Films, should zoom past $600 million over the weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who says lightning can\u2019t strike twice and on the same Hollywood studio lot? On Thursday, writer-director Zach Cregger\u2018s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[9867,18,117,19,17,327,14780,14781,819,820],"class_list":{"0":"post-16366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-box-office","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-new-line","15":"tag-sinners","16":"tag-weapons","17":"tag-zach-cregger"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}