Weapons crashes past its projected weekends collection with a whopping $18.2 million

Zach Cregger’s mystery-horror Weapons exceeded expectations in a way no one would have thought. Launching in over 3,200 theaters, the New Line release carved out a massive $18.2 million on opening week alone, thanks in part to a sharp $5.7 million haul from Thursday previews. Powered by glowing reviews, the film is now tracking for a $40 million opening weekend, cementing itself as one of the summer’s most surprising box office shocks.

Zach Cregger’s sophomore effort Weapons is outpacing his debut, Barbarian on every front. While Barbarian earned critical praise, its opening weekend audience reaction was lukewarm, landing a C+ CinemaScore. Weapons, however, is poised to surpass Barbarian’s entire $40.8 million domestic total in a single weekend.

The film has struck gold with both critics and audiences, boasting a 96% critics score and 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a rare A- CinemaScore for a horror release. With strong word-of-mouth and box office momentum, Weapons is cementing Cregger’s status as a rising force in the genre.

What is Weapons about?

Weapons opens in Maybrook, Pennsylvania, at precisely 2:17 a.m., when seventeen children from the same classroom vanish into the night. The next morning, teacher Justine Gandy finds only one student, Alex Lilly, at school. Her insistence that something is wrong draws suspicion from the community, and she’s placed on leave. But Alex’s strange home life, windows covered, parents in a trance, pulls her deeper into a chilling mystery.

Elsewhere, grieving father Archer Graff begins his own search for his missing son. Nightmares plague him and Justine alike, their visions tied to an unsettling woman. As the investigation unravels, a local addict stumbles upon the missing children in Alex’s basement, setting off a chain of deadly encounters. The truth surfaces in fragments: Alex’s supposed aunt Gladys is no relative at all but a centuries-old witch feeding on youth to restore her beauty.

She’s manipulated Alex into luring his classmates, trapping them under her control. The final act erupts in chaos, possessed townsfolk, violent confrontations, and a desperate ritual performed by Alex himself. In a shocking reversal, the children break free, chasing Gladys into the streets before tearing her apart. Her death shatters the spell, reuniting families, though many children remain catatonic.

Weapons debuted in the Philippines on August 6 before its U.S. release on August 8 via Warner Bros. Pictures. Critics raved, audiences followed suit, and the film quickly outperformed its projection earnings worldwide. With a cast led by Josh Brolin, who replaced Pedro Pascal in the film, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, and Amy Madigan, Zach Cregger’s sophomore feature is both a chilling supernatural tale and a testament to his growing mastery of atmospheric, character-driven horror.