Fantastic Four Faces Strong Competition from Freakier Friday and Weapons

There is a neck and neck race to topple The Fantastic Four: First Steps at the domestic box office. The new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie had the franchise’s best domestic debut of 2025 with $117.6 million, but it followed that with one of the franchise’s worst drops, falling 66% during its sophomore weekend.

Although Fantastic Four hit No. 1 during its first two weekends, it faces competition from a pair of new releases. The first is Disney’s legacy sequel Freakier Friday, which reunites original 2003 stars Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. The second is the Julia Garner horror movie Weapons, which is director Zach Cregger’s follow-up to his 2022 hit Barbarian.

Per Variety, new projections show that both new releases are expected to work in tandem to knock The Fantastic Four: First Steps to No. 3 on the domestic box office chart. The superhero movie is only set to earn between $18 and $20 million during its third weekend. However, it remains to be seen which new movie will ultimately take No. 1.

Freakier Friday is projected to debut between $27 and $30 million, while Weapons ranges between $25 and $30 million. Should the horror movie hit the upper bound of its range, it’s entirely possible that it could nab No. 1 from the Disney movie in spite of the fact that its R rating limits its possible audience compared to the PG comedy.

What This Means For The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The fact that the Fantastic Four: First Steps box office is not looking strong enough for it to remain on the chart for three consecutive weekends is not unprecedented. The only superhero movie of 2025 to top the chart for three weekends so far is Captain America: Brave New World, as Thunderbolts* and Superman were both only No. 1 for two weekends.

However, prospects are looking mixed for the superhero movie in terms of the raw numbers. Those latter titles were toppled by movies with much bigger debuts, as Thunderbolts* was unseated by Final Destination Bloodlines’ $51.6 million debut while Superman was usurped by The Fantastic Four’s own $117.6 million.

However, The Fantastic Four is still tracking above the raw third-weekend grosses of the previous Marvel movies. Captain America only took in $14.8 million during the same frame, while Thunderbolts* made $16.6 million. The only superhero movie to outdo First Steps’ current range is Superman, which earned $24.8 million during its third weekend.

Our Take On The Projected Weekend Box Office

While the future performance of 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps remains questionable, these overall projections are ultimately a big win for Weapons. The fact that it could potentially outgross the sequel to a major comedy hit is quite astounding.

Additionally, its debut should easily clear Barbarian’s own $10.5 million. This was never a guarantee, especially considering the fact that 2025’s other directorial follow-up to a major horror hit – the Philippou Brothers’ Bring Her Back – opened with just $7.2 million compared to the $10.4 million debut of their previous feature, Talk to Me.

However, while The Fantastic Four: First Steps could still inch its way towards ending up in the black if it maintains a more consistent audience hold, it should have been able to hold its own much better in the quiet period at the beginning of August.

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Source: Variety