Los Angeles Premiere Of Warner Bros. Pictures And New Line Cinema's "Weapons" - Arrivals

Josh Brolin at the LA Premiere of "Weapons” (Getty Images)

SCARY GOOD

“Weapons” debut helps horror creep toward a record share of the US box office

The new mystery horror took an impressive $42.5 million domestically over the weekend, marking another big box office win for the genre.

Millie Giles

8/11/25 9:57AM

In previous years, even some of the highest-grossing horror movies have struggled to garner critical acclaim, with the genre often seeing large disparities between audience- and critic-powered scores on film review site Rotten Tomatoes.

But “Barbarian” director Zach Cregger’s new horror mystery, “Weapons,” was already making headlines for setting and equaling records on both of those metrics, having debuted at a perfect 100% critical rating on the site — before it opened to an impressive $42.5 million at the US box office over the weekend.

Indeed, “Weapons” is just the latest flick to help boost the horror genre to a potentially record-breaking 2025. The share of ticket sales for horror movies at the US box office is at an all-time high of 14.4% so far this year, up from 9.8% last year, per data from The Numbers.

On the fright track

Following the mammoth success of “Sinners,” which, per ScreenRant, has become the highest-grossing original movie of the 2020s, as well as sequel installments like “28 Years Later” and “Final Destination Bloodlines,” it’s already been a huge year for horror heading into the second half of 2025.

Taking artistic license with the ‘made to frighten’ format appears to be paying off, too. In 2021, the full year where the genre notched its highest market share in the US, horror was dominated by franchise follow-ups like “Halloween” and “A Quiet Place.” Now, it seems adrenaline-thirsty audiences are eager for original stories like “Weapons.”

While industry bods warned of a “horror glut” at the outset of the summer — with Variety counting a total of 29 wide-release horror films across seven major studios slated for 2025 — six horror movies released this year have already accrued more than $50 million each at the worldwide box office, according to The Numbers, suggesting that the appetite for big scares on big screens is still there.

US Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.7 Billion

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As the Powerball jackpot has stretched to $1.8 billion, users are flooding into DraftKing’s Jackpocket lottery app.

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American flag design pillow. USA Flag Throw Pillow. Patriotic concept

Max Knoblauch

9/2/25

Paramount and Microsoft’s Activision agree to partner on a “Call of Duty” movie

Less than a month after forming, Paramount Skydance has landed another major piece of intellectual property. The studio said it’s signed a deal with Microsoft’s Activision to create a live-action “Call of Duty” film.

The competitive shooter is one of the most popular gaming franchises in the world and has been the US’s bestselling series for the past 16 years. The next title in the 22-year-old franchise, “Black Ops 7,” will debut in November.

Paramount, which closed its merger with Skydance in August, has had a summer of big deals. It acquired UFC broadcast rights in a $7.7 billion deal with TKO last month, following a $1.5 billion deal for “South Park” rights in July. The company also lured “Stranger Things” creators away from Netflix last month for a four-year film and TV development deal.

Paramount & Activision Team For ‘Call Of Duty’ Movie

Tom Jones

9/1/25

“Blinding Lights” just officially hit 5 billion streams on Spotify

Over the weekend, The Weeknd’s biggest hit crossed over the impressive threshold, with Spotify marking the feat with an Instagram post that the artist shared to his story.

According to Spotify data collated by Kworb, the song now has a staggering 5,000,010,581 streams on the platform, and is racking up nearly 1.5 million streams each day at the time of writing.

Blinding Lights crosses 5 billion chart — Sherwood News

While Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” released about two years before “Blinding Lights,” looks like it’ll be the next song to hit the 5 billion boundary, “Starboy,” another song from The Weeknd, might not be too far behind.

Besides those two megahits, The Weeknd has 26 other songs that have been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify — more than any other artist on the platform.

The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is about to hit 5 billion streams on Spotify

Besides those two megahits, The Weeknd has 26 other songs that have been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify — more than any other artist on the platform.

$30B

Nia Warfield

8/29/25

Americans are set to gamble a record $30 billion on the NFL this season, according to estimates from the American Gaming Association.

For context, that’s the same price tag as all US sports broadcasting rights combined. Leading sportsbooks like DraftKings, Flutter Entertainment’s FanDuel, Caesars Entertainment, and MGM’s BetMGM are positioned to cash in, with each battling for market share through promos, partnerships, and increasingly sticky mobile apps.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are ramping up efforts to crack down on illegal sportsbooks: this month, 50 attorneys general urged the Justice Department to take action against unlicensed gambling, warning that states are losing roughly $4 billion in tax revenue.