Warner Bros. Scores Its 7th Top Film of 2025 With ‘Weapons’

Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema’s “Weapons” generated more than $40 million in domestic box office sales this weekend. (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)

Hollywood advanced a late-summer hot streak with two more blockbuster debuts at the box office.

Warner Bros.’ Weapons came in first in its first weekend, notching domestic box office sales of $42.5 million, according to Comscore. Walt Disney’s latest, Freakier Friday, generated $29 million in sales. Both beat Disney’s Fantastic Four: First Steps, which brought in $26.5 million for the weekend for third place.

It was a stronger than expected showing for two movie genres that have struggled in the age of streaming. Weapons is a horror movie, and Warner Bros.’ seventh first place debut of the year so far, according to Comscore. The comedy Freakier Friday is a sequel to Disney’s 2003 Freaky Friday, both starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.

The diverse offerings, which could not be more different in terms of their rating and audience appeal, are “a perfect recipe for success during a month that is known for offering an eclectic selection of movies that are not necessarily in the cookie cutter vein of the typical ‘play it safe’ popcorn summer movie,” said Comscore’s senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Overall, domestic weekend box office sales reached $131 million, pushing the total for the year so far to $5.6 billion, according to Comscore. That year to date total is up 7.6% from a year ago.

But that lead over 2024 has been shrinking as the summer draws out, Dergarabedian acknowledged. “A few weeks of down trending box office however has knocked both the year to date and summer advantages down a few percentage points but the goodwill that’s been created by a very strong selection of movies over the past few weeks from every genre is as important a currency as the bottom-line box office,” he said.

Fantastic Four has brought in more than $434 million globally since it hit theater screens three weeks ago, including $230 million in domestic sales.

Coming into the home stretch, Comcast -owned Universal’s Nobody 2 will enter theaters next weekend, and Sony’s Caught Stealing and Disney’s The Roses come out Aug. 29.

Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com