Box office, welcome to the dog days of summer. In this terribly sluggish Labor Day holiday weekend, a horror movie in its fourth weekend of release was No. 1 while a 50-year-old blockbuster beat out two newcomers.
“Weapons,” after briefly ceding the crown to Netflix’s “Kpop Demon Hunters,” reclaimed the top spot in North America with $10.2 million over the traditional weekend and an estimated $12.4 million through Monday. So far, the scary movie has earned $134.6 million domestically and $250 million globally against a $38 million budget. Zach Cregger’s sleeper success is the latest theatrical winner for Warner Bros., which suffered a rocky start to the year but has since rebounded with hits like “A Minecraft Movie,” “Sinners,” “Final Destination Bloodlines,” “F1: The Movie” (which the studio distributed for Apple) and “Superman.”
In second place, a “Jaws” 50th anniversary re-release collected $8.1 million from 3,200 theaters over the weekend and an estimated $9.8 million through Monday. Turns out, that shark still has teeth. Those ticket sales were above two new major studio offerings, Sony’s crime comedy “Caught Stealing” and Disney and 20th Century’s satire “The Roses.” “Jaws” is widely credited with launching the summer blockbuster, with its outsized profits making studios realize the appeal of releasing films when kids were out of school, as well as the merchandising opportunities that an escapist adventure can create.
“Caught Stealing,” directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler and Zoe Kravitz, landed at No. 3 with $7.8 million over the traditional weekend and an estimated $9.5 million over the four-day holiday frame. It’s a so-so start for the $40 million budgeted film, about a New York City bartender who finds himself in the crosshairs of threatening gangsters after agreeing to watch his neighbor’s cat. Though reviews were positive (84% on Rotten Tomatoes), moviegoers weren’t as enthusiastic and planted the film with a “B” grade on CinemaScore exit polls.
“This opening is good-not-great,” says analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “There are a lot of crime thrillers, and this is not an easy sell following a summer lineup of event pictures.”
Fourth place went to Disney’s “Freakier Friday,” the sequel to the 2003 body-switching comedy, “Freaky Friday,” which earned $6.5 million over the weekend and $8.3 million across the four-day holiday. Its domestic gross should stand at just over $80 million and its global haul will hit $130 million through Labor Day.
Meanwhile “The Roses” debuted in fifth place with $6.4 million over the weekend and an estimated $8 million through Labor Day. Directed by Jay Roach and loosely based on the 1981 novel “The War of the Roses,” the story follows a seemingly picture-perfect couple with serious cracks in the relationship. Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman lead the cast alongside the ensemble of Andy Samberg, Allison Janney and Kate McKinnon. Critics didn’t love the film (64% on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences seemed fonder, granting “The Roses” a “B+” grade on CinemaScore.
“This is a soft start,” says Gross. “These days, a release like this will finish quickly on its way to good ancillary business, again, driven by the quality cast.”
Perhaps it felt overly familiar. “The War of the Roses” already was adapted into a 1989 film with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. Unlike “The Roses,” it was a huge hit, earning $160 million — a huge sum for the time.
Labor Day isn’t known for packing in crowds at the movies, so it’s no surprise that this weekend was among the softest of the year. Overall the four-day stretch brought in roughly $86 million, a 19% decline from last year’s holiday which was powered by Marvel’s billion-dollar blockbuster “Deadpool and Wolverine.” Summer season officially ended with domestic revenues at $3.67 billion, down 0.2% from 2024 and a whopping 10.2% behind 2023, according to Comscore. That’s disappointing news for the business, which thought this crop of sequels, spinoffs and superhero adventures would be enough to push ticket sales to $4 billion.
Better luck next summer.
