In what’s one of the last big showdowns at the summer box office, New Line’s Weapons, which is strong across the board, and Disney’s very femme-skewing, much millennial loved Freakier Friday, are about to face off on Friday with the tracking reports indicating a too close to call win for No. 1 with $30M+ a piece.
However, there is immense buzz from distribution sources that the Zach Cregger directed, written and produced enigmatic horror movie about a class of school children who fled their homes mysteriously in the night, has the edge with a mid-$30M, possible $40M take. We’re hearing that AMC is seeing presales for Weapons ahead of 28 Days Later. That Danny Boyle zombie title opened to $30M.
Disney’s Freakier Friday, which reteams Lindsay Lohan and Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis from the 2003 film, is hoping for $30M.
The advantage for R-rated Weapons is that it has all the Imax auditoriums, and most of the PLFs (Freakier Friday will have some daytime screenings). Also definite interest on tracking for the Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Benedict Wong, and Alden Ehrenreich title is over 40 across all demos (by the way, that doesn’t mean people over 40, those figures are tracking numbers for men and women over and under the age of 25). That’s a streak of definite interest figures that any studio can envy. Freakier Friday‘s 40+ figures in definite interest are among females only.
Also, Weapons is currently 100% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes to Freakier Friday‘s 79% fresh. The original Freaky Friday was 88% certified fresh with critics with an A- CinemaScore.
The upside for Freakier Friday is that it’s bound to rule the middle of the country which savors PG-rated movies. Currently, we hear that the presales for the Nisha Ganatra directed movie stand at $3M. The sweet spot for Freakier Friday is also women 17-34 and teens. The 2003 movie opened during the first frame of August to $22.2M over 3-days and $33.1M over 5 days. Freaky Friday ranked No. 2 at the weekend B.O. back then to Sony’s big screen rendition of TV show S.W.A.T. ($37M). Freaky Friday was a remake of the 1976 Disney classic starring Jodie Foster, Barbara Harris and John Astin about a mom and a daughter whose personalities are switched on a strange Friday. In Freakier Friday the souls of a grandmother, mother, daughter and step-daughter are swapped among each other (you’ll have to see the movie to find out who switches with who).
Weapons is booked at 3,200 locations. There are 7PM Alamo Drafthouse shows on Wednesday, with previews starting at 2:17PM on Thursday (that first showtime a reference to the time when the kiddies ran out of their homes in the film, even though it was 2:17AM).
Freakier Friday is holding their first preview tomorrow at 7PM as it will be 22 years to the day that the original movie first bowed. Thursday shows start at 2PM. The pic is booked in 3,975 theatres including 850 PLFs and 150+ DBOX/Motion screens.
New Line won Weapons in an auction for close to $38M, that price tag included the budget and Cregger getting $5 million to direct, and $10 million total when that sum was added to his fees for scripting and producing alongside Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Miri Yoon, and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules. Warners beat out Universal, which had a bid that was $7M less than its rival down the road. Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw were going to produce Weapons had Uni landed it. Warner Bros originally had Weapons opening in cinemas on MLK weekend 2026 before they moved the horror film into this year thanks to great test scores.