Weapons Outgrosses Director Zach Cregger’s Previous Hit, Barbarian, After Just 3 Days

Weapons has already outgrossed Barbarian. Weapons is the new horror movie from director Zach Cregger, whose 2022 outing Barbarian became a surprise hit at a still pandemic-depressed box office by grossing $45.4 million against its reported budget of just $4.5 million.

His follow-up in the genre is 2025’s Weapons, which stars Julia Garner as an elementary school teacher who is suspected of being behind the mysterious disappearance of all but one of her students on the same night. The movie’s ensemble cast also includes Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, and Amy Madigan.

Warner Bros. reports that, as of Sunday morning, Weapons is projected to end its opening weekend with a global haul of $70 million, comprising $42.5 million at the domestic box office and an additional $27.5 million from more than 70 international markets.

Not only does this total surpá´€ss the $45.4 million gross of Barbarian, it exceeds it by more than one and a half times. Weapons has accomplished this in the span of just three days, so it should climb considerably higher by the end of its run.

What This Means For Weapons

This box office boost is not necessarily a surprise, as Weapons reviews have been even more glowing than Barbarian‘s. Even though the 2022 movie nabbed an excellent, Certified Fresh, score of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, Weapons is Certified Fresh with 95%, a stellar score at which it settled after debuting on the review aggregator platform with a perfect 100%.

The theatrical success of the Josh Brolin movie also seems to have been anticipated by its producers, because its budget is more than seven times that of Barbarian, reportedly coming out to $38 million.

While the exact break-even point of Weapons is unknown, many movies need to gross two and a half times their budgets in order to turn a profit, which could place the movie’s estimated break-even point as high as $95 million. However, given its debut, it seems likely to hit that benchmark by the end of its sophomore weekend alone.

Our Take On The Global Debut Of Weapons

Josh Brolin as Archer Graff looking angry at a community meeting in Weapons

While the 2020s have already seen a number of huge original horror hits (particularly Smile, which was the highest-grossing horror movie of 2022), Weapons continues a dazzling trend for the genre by becoming the 30th highest-grossing movie of 2025 after just three days, as well as the fourth highest-grossing horror movie of the year so far.

By debuting this high on the global chart, Weapons joins Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (the highest-grossing horror movie of 2025 so far with a $365.9 million haul) as another towering achievement for original genre storytelling in 2025.

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