Universal and Blumhouse’s adaptation of the popular video game “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has made a remarkable debut in the box office, earning a total of $80 million in North America and $132 million globally. This is especially impressive considering the movie was simultaneously released on streaming service Peacock, and was made with a budget of only $20 million. In the three days since its release, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” has already out-earned the global hauls of two other hybrid releases from Universal and Peacock, “Halloween Kills” and “Halloween Ends”, and is now the biggest hybrid release from the two companies.
The film, starring Josh Hutcherson, follows a security guard at a family entertainment center called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, where he soon finds out that the animatronic mascots are prone to murder. The PG-13 rating and prime Halloween release date helped its success, as did the fact that it has a passionate fanbase of young moviegoers. Critics have not been as enthusiastic as audiences, giving it a 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, but this kind of discrepancy usually does not matter for the horror genre.
“Five Nights at Freddy’s” is now the highest-grossing horror film of the year, surpassing “The Nun II” ($85 million), “M3GAN” ($95 million) and “Scream VI” ($108 million). It has also been the most-watched and biggest subscription driver since its release on Peacock, though the streamer did not provide metrics to back up these accolades. Despite this success, some analysts believe the hybrid release leaves money on the table, as viewers at home do not get the same experience as those in the theater.
The film has set a number of box office records, including the highest-grossing opening weekend for Blumhouse, the 19th Blumhouse film to open in first place at the domestic box office, the biggest opening weekend of the year for a horror film, the second-largest debut of all time for a video game adaptation, the biggest opening weekend ever for Universal and Peacock’s hybrid releases, the highest-grossing opening weekend for Halloween weekend release, the third-biggest debut for any horror film, the best debut ever for a PG-13 horror film, the second-biggest horror opening of the year internationally, and the global record.
