The success of Warner Bros.’ “ Weapons ” and Disney’s “ Freakier Friday ” in their opening weekends at the box officemarked a win for superhero counterprogramming efforts and for moderately budgeted movies.

That’s the analysis offered by Brent Lang, Variety executive editor and a longtime box office reporter, on the latest episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast. The performance of both wide opener titles this past weekend was encouraging for the overall health of moviegoing.

“What was exciting is that [‘Weapons’ and ‘Freakier Friday’] were really effective examples of counter- programming. One was going for kind of younger female audiences, and the other was going for slightly older male audiences,” Lang says. “One is an R-rated movie, one is a PG rated movie. So it really shows th

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