How can I put a new screw where an EZ dry wall anchor holding up wide curtain rod was pulled out?

Question

I had put a few EZ dry wall anchors for a curtain rod fixture. It was holding up great. Someone pulled on the curtain and one of the fixtures was pulled out with the dry wall anchors.

If it was up to me I'd just put the fixture a few inches down, since we have plenty of wiggle room, but it's not up to me.

So I need to re-attach the fixtures to the same exact spot.

I know plastering the holes won't be strong enough. I don't want to have to cut a huge square of the drywall out -- unless that is the only way.

Picture of the holes:

One thought I had was to use a bigger/better drywall anchor like this but I don't know enough about this field to know if that'll hold up.

Answer 1

The easiest answer to this is a new, bigger drywall anchor - but these usually require new, bigger screws (thicker shaft, and likely a larger head). At some point, this approach becomes a bad idea, the screws can get too big and the anchors ripping the wall too much.

There are various different types of anchors, similar to the one you linked. Consider any of these as a replacement for the anchor that got ripped out:

These are all larger and more powerful than the ordinary anchors that are typically included with curtain rod mounting hardware kits.

Sometimes the area near windows like this has studs/framing behind it (yours doesn't appear to, but anyone else viewing this answer would do well to look for that first) and while framing is a better mount point for screws directly, it doesn't work well at all with these kinds of anchors. Look for framing before drilling holes for anchors, you may just need to screw directly to the framing.