{"id":153564,"date":"2025-08-17T16:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153564\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T16:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T16:48:12","slug":"horror-movie-drops-just-40-in-second-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/153564\/","title":{"rendered":"Horror Movie Drops Just 40% in Second Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cWeapons<\/a>\u201d creeped 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\u2019s known to drastically fall after opening weekend. <\/p>\n

\n\tEn route to sleeper hit status, \u201cWeapons\u201d has grossed $89 million domestically and $148 million worldwide after two weekends of release. The film, which cost a modest $38 million, is benefitting from great reviews and electric word-of-mouth. It\u2019s the fifth consecutive hit for Warner Bros. following \u201cA Minecraft Movie,\u201d \u201cSinners,\u201d \u201cFinal Destination Bloodlines\u201d and \u201cSuperman.\u201d Fortunes have reversed for the studio after starting the year with such financial misfires as \u201cMickey 17\u201d and \u201cThe Alto Knights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis weekend\u2019s only major new release, Universal\u2019s action thriller \u201cNobody 2,\u201d didn\u2019t 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\u2019s just barely ahead of its predecessor, 2021\u2019s \u201cNobody,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tTimo Tjahjanto\u00a0took over directing duties from the original\u2019s filmmaker Ilya Naishuller. In the follow-up, Odenkirk\u2019s 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\u2019t as positive as the first; \u201cNobody 2\u201d earned a \u201cB+\u201d grade on CinemaScore compared to the original\u2019s \u201cA-\u201d grade. \u201cNobody 2\u201d was modestly priced at $25 million, just above the first film\u2019s $16 million price tag.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018Nobody 1\u2019 cost very little to make for a studio action picture and was comfortably profitable,\u201d says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. \u201c\u2018Nobody 2\u2019 is an opportunity to earn a few more dollars without a lot of risk. At [its] price, the picture should make money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn second place, Disney\u2019s \u201cFreakier Friday\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother Disney film, the Marvel superhero adventure \u201cThe Fantastic Four: First Steps,\u201d plunged to the No. 4 spot with $8.8 million in its fourth weekend of release. After a promising $117 million bow, \u201cFantastic Four\u201d 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\u2019s prior Marvel entries, February\u2019s \u201cCaptain America: Brave New World\u201d ($415 million globally) and May\u2019s \u201cThunderbolts\u201d ($382 million globally). But after a rocky post-pandemic stretch, this performance doesn\u2019t yet signal a return to box office glory for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Bad Guys 2\u201d rounded out the top five with $6.9 million in its third outing. Universal and DreamWorks Animation\u2019s heist comedy has generated $56 million domestically and $117 million globally. By comparison, the first \u201cBad Guys\u201d was a slow-and-steady hit with $250 million over the course of its entire run.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn sixth place, \u201cSuperman\u201d 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 worldwide to date. In a matter of days, it\u2019ll become one of six films this year to cross the $600 million mark.<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere, Sydney Sweeney\u2019s crime thriller \u201cAmericana\u201d cratered with $500,000 from 1,110 locations for a dismal start in 16th place. It\u2019s one of the worst openings in history for a film that landed on more than 1,000 screens. Co-starring Paul Walter Hauser,\u00a0Halsey and\u00a0Eric Dane,\u00a0the 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.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film was made in 2022 and finished in 2023, so it\u2019s been sitting for over two years,\u201d says Gross. \u201cTime to get it out, move it through its release windows, and put it on TV to generate some income.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe overall box office is 6.4% ahead of last year \u2014 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\u2019s goal of hitting the elusive $4 billion mark \u2014 a once-common milestone that has only been achieved one time since the pandemic \u2014 won\u2019t be within reach. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAlas, it\u2019s not in the cards at this point,\u201d says senior Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian of the $4 billion mark. \u201cThat said, it\u2019s been an amazing summer movie season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWeapons\u201d creeped back to the top of box office charts, collecting a significant $25 million in its second…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153565,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,67,132,68,9826],"class_list":{"0":"post-153564","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115045132422823597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}