Five Nights at Freddy's nabs biggest horror opening of the year, beating out Scream VI
FNAF isn't here to mess around, apparently
Universal and Blumhouse's Five Nights at Freddy's is looking at nabbing globally a whopping $130 million this weekend according to Deadline, despite the movie also premiering on the streaming platform Peacock simultaneously.
It looks like the young audience for Five Nights at Freddy's is more excited to watch the PG-13 horror movie in theaters than at home, as Five Nights at Freddy's debuted officially on Friday to $39.4 million domestically, raking in an early $10.3 million in previews on Thursday. Deadline's sources predict that the box office is "frontloaded" with a hefty 39% predicted drop set for today, once the opening day rush wears off. Even with the drop, FNAF's early success has the video game adaptation nab the biggest horror opening weekend of the year so far, beating out Scream VI.
A year ago, Universal and Blumhouse's Halloween Ends came in at $40 million over three days, and that horror release was also doing a day-and-date release on the Peacock streaming platform. The big difference here is that Five Nights at Freddy's is a PG-13 movie, tailored by the filmmakers and the studio to accommodate younger viewers, a huge part of the FNAF fandom. Halloween Ends ended up bringing home $104 million worldwide at the theatrical box office, plus big numbers on Peacock reportedly, on a $33 million production budget. A final result along these lines would be more than okay for Blumhouse's latest, as FNAF's budget sits reportedly around only $25 million.
Another PG-13 release that released earlier this year, M3GAN, could hold the definitive answer to the box office predictions surrounding Five Nights at Freddy's. That movie opened to just $30 million domestically, but had extremely good legs for a horror feature and wrapped up just shy of $180 million worldwide on a ridiculous $12 million budget, which instantly made the studio greenlight a sequel. Since FNAF is pretty much free to pillage the box office until The Marvels arrives on November 10, and is dropping as a Halloween treat, it could perform similarly to 2023's other killer animatronic feature.
Five Nights at Freddy's is available to stream on Peacock and is currently in cinemas. Buy tickets on Fandango or Atom Tickets.
The Five Nights at Freddy's phenomenon is lasting longer than five nights. Get up to speed, with how to stream the movie, details on the characters and lore, getting to know the FNAF animatronics, how it fits in the canon of the games, talks of sequels, how Chuck E. Cheese is responding, and even a guide to how to play all the FNAF games.
Can't get enough? We have have recommendations for five movies to watch after Five Nights at Freddy's.
