Box Office: ‘Weapons’ Makes $5.7 Million in Previews, ‘Freakier Friday’ Has $3.1 Million

The box office is getting a lot freakier this Friday, with two new movies hitting theaters and battling for the No. 1 spot: “Freakier Friday” and “Weapons.”

The Disney body-swap comedy has made $3.1 million in Thursday previews at the box office, while Warner Bros.’ horror thriller has $5.7 million.

“Freakier Friday,” starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis 22 years after the original movie, is on track to make $27 million to $30 million this weekend, while director Zach Cregger’s “Weapons,” the follow-up to his 2022 hit horror “Barbarian,” is expected to be neck-and-neck with $25 million to $30 million. Both of them will take on Marvel’s “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which is aiming to make $18 million to $20 million in its third weekend of release. After debuting to a strong $117.6 million two weeks ago, “Fantastic Four” plummeted 66% in its sophomore weekend. Dropping 50% in its third weekend would put it among Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which both had the same decline. “Fantastic Four” is on track to outpace the “Captain America” fourquel, which made $415 million globally, but it won’t be the box office savior that Marvel needs.

The body swaps in “Freakier Friday” are doubled this time around, with young stars Julia Butters and Sophia Hammons joining Lohan and Curtis. Anna Coleman (Lohan) has a daughter, Harper (Butters), and soon-to-be stepdaughter, Lily (Hammons), who all swap bodies with matriarch Tess (Curtis). Returning cast members also include Chad Michael Murray and Mark Harmon, and newcomers are Manny Jacinto, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Vanessa Bayer and more. The sequel has a tidy $42 million production budget.

The R-rated “Weapons” is freaky in its own right; it follows a group of 17 schoolchildren who disappear in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason. Josh Brolin, Julia Garner and Alden Ehrenreich star as various members of the community who are affected by the tragedy and try to uncover the mystery. Benedict Wong, Austin Abrams, Amy Madigan and more star in the horror, which only cost $38 million to produce.