The Fantastic Four: First Steps is no longer looming large over Hollywood, as Weapons has taken its first-place spot at the box office. A horror movie led by Josh Brolin (Archer Graff) and Julia Garner (Justine Gandy), it revolves around an investigation into the disappearances of over a dozen children. It debuted in theaters on August 8.

Weapons entered theaters alongside Freakier Friday, a sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday that sees Jamie Lee Curtis (Tess Coleman) and Lindsay Lohan (Anna Coleman) reprise their original roles. Like Weapons, it was released on August 8 and hoped to dethrone last week’s #1 release, Fantastic Four: First Steps.

While the twin superhero releases, Fantastic Four and Superman, dominated July, alongside Jurᴀssic World, August offers a change of pace. According to reports by ᴅᴇᴀᴅline and Variety, Weapons has had an extraordinary start to the weekend, earning $18.2 million on Friday to bring in a projected $40-$43 million start. Check out the chart below, which showcases this weekend’s Top 5:

There has been significant turnover, as the new releases have catapulted to the top of the charts. Superman and Jurᴀssic World Rebirth have fallen out of the top 5 in their 5th and 6th weekends, respectively. Naked Gun and The Bad Guys 2 both fell by approximately 50% in their sophomore weekends, though they remain in the top 5.

The main change was the introduction of Weapons and Freakier Friday. With $70 million between them, they are both earning nearly twice as much as the third-place Fantastic Four.

What This Means For The Weekend Box Office

This is a major change at the box office, as two new releases have risen to knock Marvel Studios’ latest release down the chart. The top two releases of the week are new debuts, which is surprising, as Fantastic Four was hoping to remain dominant through August. A -56% drop on Friday, however, made holding steady an impossible task.

Weapons taking the top spot continues a trend of horror movies thriving at an increasingly tumultuous box office, but it also represents a major shift for the industry. Both Weapons and Freakier Friday had budgets of under $50 million, with Weapons having $38 million and Freakier Friday $42 million, making eventual profitability far more likely.

The rise of streaming platforms has contributed to this shift, as viewers have been left with more options to see new releases more quickly. As Hollywood continues to analyze these results, it may begin to shift to lower budgets with a higher guarantee of returns, rather than relying on high-cost event movies.

Our Take On The Weekend Box Office

This is a surprise for Marvel, though not as much as it should be after Fantastic Four‘s underwhelming sophomore weekend. The superhero epic simply does not have the legs of Superman or previous Marvel releases like ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine or Avengers: Endgame. Its $229 million total so far will not be enough against a $200 million budget.

By contrast, Weapons and Freakier Friday should be ecstatic about their debuts. While Disney likely hoped for more from the family comedy, it is difficult to disparage a $30 million opening for a sequel to a 2003 movie. After years of box office turmoil, any success should be celebrated, and both of these releases are enjoying promising starts.

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