Warner Bros cemented another milestone in a notable summer as Zach Cregger’s critically lauded horror Weapons crossed $100m at the North American box office.
The threshold has traditionally brought automatic cachet without too much scrutiny of costs. However in this case it is meaningful and represents a profit for Warner Bros/New Line on $172.6m and counting at the worldwide box office. The original horror reportedly carried a $38m production budget, in addition to several tens of millions in marketing spend, and the split with exhibition.
Weapons added $2.4m on Thursday to reach $100.3m. It stars Juia Garner and Josh Brolin as a teacher and a parent, respectively, who attempt to discover the whereabouts of all but one of a class of schoolchildren who fled their homes at the same time in the middle of the night and have not been seen since.
It marks Creggers’ follow-up to his much-admired feature debut, the 2022 basement horror Barbarian, and has established the filmmaker as one of the hottest talents in Hollywood. The writer-director was paid $10m to make the film, and is in prep on Resident Evil for Sony Pictures.
The $43.5m August 8-10 opening weekend established a Hollywood record by a studio when it became Warner Bros’ sixth consecutive film to open on more than $40m after A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, F1 (the Apple Original Film on which Warner Bros partnered as theatrical distributor), Final Destination: Bloodlines, and Superman. Each opened at number one.
It is also another original horror success for Warner Bros after Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which has earned $278m in North America and $365m worldwide and positioned star Michael B. Jordan as an awards contender.
Weapons stands at $72.3m from international markets, with the UK leading the way on $10m, followed by Mexico on $6.4m, Spain on $5.1m, France on $4.9m, and Australia on $4.3m.