Box Office Round-Up ~ 8/25/25

When we said last week that this weekend didn’t feature any new blockbusters, we perhaps foolishly forgot about a streaming blockbuster making a surprise visit to theaters. For the first time, Netflix won the theatrical box office with its KPop Demon Hunters sing-along event. Much like their streaming numbers, Netflix isn’t giving up their exact box office stats, but it looks like the animated hit took in an estimated $19.2 million per Deadline.

There are two big takeaways from KPop Demon Hunters’ box office win. First, Netflix should consider more limited theatrical events for both its features and original series (genre fare like Wednesday and Stranger Things springs to mind). Second, Netflix bought KPop Demon Hunters from Sony Pictures Animation for $100 million, giving the streaming service full control of what is now obviously bankable IP. Sony has the right to produce any future sequels, but perhaps in the future they (and other studios) could show a little more faith in their own product before selling it off and/or relegating it to streaming.

The rest of the top five were returning titles from previous weekends. Weapons finished up three weekends with $15.4 million, putting it past $100 million overall. Freakier Friday took third place, grossing $8.8 million for $70 million total in the U.S. The Fantastic Four: First Steps held onto fourth place after five weekends, taking in $6 million to put it past $250 million overall. And in fifth place, The Bad Guys 2 grossed $5.1 million in its fourth weekend for a domestic total of $66 million.

1. KPop Demon Hunters ($19.2 MM)
Director: Chris Appelhans (UTA), Maggie Kang (UTA)
Writers: Danya Jimenez (Verve), Hannah McMechan (Verve), Chris Appelhans (UTA), Maggie Kang (UTA)
Cast: Arden Cho (Innovative Artists)
May Hong (CESD Talent Agency)
Ji-young Yoo (Gersh)

2. Weapons ($15.4 MM)
Director: Zach Cregger (CAA)
Writers: Zach Cregger (CAA)
Cast: Julia Garner (UTA)
Josh Brolin (CAA)
Alden Ehrenreich (CAA)

3. Freakier Friday ($8.8 MM)
Director: Nisha Ganatra (CAA)
Writers: Jordan Weiss (UTA), Elyse Hollander (UTA)
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis (CAA)
Lindsay Lohan (IAG)
Julia Butters (UTA)

4. The Fantastic Four: First Steps ($6 MM)
Director: Matt Shakman (CAA)
Writers: Josh Friedman (CAA), Jeff Kaplan (CAA)
Cast: Pedro Pascal (CAA)
Vanessa Kirby (CAA)
Joseph Quinn (CAA)

5. The Bad Guys 2 ($5.1 MM)
Director: Pierre Perifel (UTA), JP Sans
Writers: Yoni Brenner (Verve), Etan Cohen (CAA)
Cast: Sam Rockwell (Gersh)
Zazie Beetz (WME)
Marc Maron (IAG)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers