Hollywood’s late-summer box office is doing its usual fade-out shuffle, but Warner Bros.’ Weapons isn’t going quietly. The Zach Cregger horror film scored another $25M in its second weekend, slipping 43% but easily holding onto first place. That brings it to $89M domestic and $148.8M worldwide in just ten days — far better than anyone predicted for a movie that was, until a month ago, being shrugged off as “just another August scarefest.”
To put that in context: Weapons has already nearly matched its production budget (a lean $38M) four times over globally, and is on pace to be one of the year’s most profitable studio releases. The real question buzzing through Hollywood: can it possibly creep close to Warner Bros.’ earlier smash, Sinners, which grossed $365.9M worldwide and has critics whispering “Oscar”?
Probably not, but for a movie with a haunted-garage budget compared to SINNERS’ mansion-sized $90M spend, Weapons is already a victory.
Disney’s Freakier Friday stayed in second place, taking in $14.5M for a 49% drop. After ten days, it stands at $54.8M domestic / $86.3M worldwide. Respectable, but unlikely to match the cultural chokehold of the 2003 original (which hit $193M worldwide adjusted for inflation). Still, with its $42M budget, the sequel will squeak into profitability once it crosses $105M worldwide.
In third, Universal’s Nobody 2 punched in with $9.3M domestic, $14.2M worldwide. Yes, that’s a sequel to the Bob Odenkirk actioner that barely cracked $60M worldwide during the pandemic. But Universal kept the budget trim ($25M), brought in Timo Tjahjanto to crank the fight choreography, and stacked the cast with Sharon Stone as the villain. Critics are split, but audiences are into it (90% RT score). Translation: don’t be surprised when Nobody 3 inevitably gets greenlit.
Marvel fans kept The Fantastic Four: First Steps in the top five, nabbing $8.8M in its fourth weekend and pushing its total to $247M domestic / $468.7M worldwide. It’s now the highest-grossing Fantastic Four film ever, but with a $200M budget, it still needs a final push to break even.
Sony’s animated The Bad Guys 2 rounded out the top five with $7.5M, bringing it to $57.2M domestic / $117.4M worldwide after three weekends. Word of mouth is strong, but international markets aren’t showing the same enthusiasm as they did for the first film.
Total box office for the weekend hit $92.9M, down significantly from last year’s $140.4M, when Alien: Romulus debuted. Six of the seven weekends this quarter have lagged behind 2024’s numbers. After a hot first half of 2025, the industry is watching the year’s lead shrink: from +15% in June to just +7% as of mid-August.
The good news? Studios are already looking past the sleepy end-of-summer slate to a packed fourth quarter, when big-ticket titles are expected to reignite moviegoing. Until then, horror is doing the heavy lifting again.
Weapons proves once more that in the dog days of August, nothing slays like a scary movie. Disney’s body-swap comedy is coasting on nostalgia, Marvel is steady if unspectacular, and Universal somehow convinced Sharon Stone to menace Bob Odenkirk at a waterpark. What’s not to love?
Lexi Carson covers the buzziest campaigns, brand beefs, and streaming shake-ups. She’s known for her razor-sharp takes, obsession with 90s ad jingles, and a red bob that’s never once missed a deadline.
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