It doesn’t matter that Five Nights at Freddy’s opens simultaneously in theaters and on streaming this weekend. Fans flocked to theaters across the country to see the horror video game adaptation on the big screen, which topped the North American box office with $78 million, according to Sunday Movie estimates.
Universal Pictures is betting on a pre-Halloween weekend release, sending it to 3,675 theaters in the U.S. and Canada and also making the film available to subscribers of Peacock, NBCUniversal’s subscription streaming service. The film also opened in 64 markets internationally and grossed an estimated $52.6 million, bringing its worldwide box office haul to $130.6 million, the highest-grossing of any horror film released this year.
Blumhouse, the studio behind “Paranormal Activity,” “Get Out” and recent horror blockbusters “M3GAN” and “Black Phone,” produces “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which stars Emma Tammy Directed by Josh Hutchison, Mary Stewart stars Masterson and Matthew Lillard. Created by Scott Cawthon and first released in 2014, this hit video game series finds a security guard who must fight off murderous animatronics in a seedy family pizza parlor, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
While the game’s fanbase is strong and passionate, the movie took many years to make. Producer Jason Blum told IGN earlier this year that he was ridiculed for pursuing the adaptation.
“Everyone said we would never finish the movie, including people inside my company, by the way,” Bloom said. They reportedly made the film with a production budget of $20 million.
It paid off: “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was his company’s biggest debut ever, surpassing “Halloween”‘s domestic and global debut. The opening weekend audience was very young, with an estimated 80% being under the age of 25, and predominantly male (58%). They gave the film a CinemaScore of A-, which is promising for the weekend ahead.
However, Five Nights at Freddy’s was not well received by critics. It currently only has a 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Associated Press’ Mark Kennedy writes It “has to go down as one of the worst movies of the year in any genre.” But like many other horror movies, it seems to stand up to criticism.
On the charts, “Taylor Swift: The Age of Concert” is projected to top $200 million globally by the end of Sunday, bringing in $14.7 million domestically and $6.7 million internationally this weekend. The concert film, distributed by AMC Theaters, is now in its third weekend in theaters, playing Thursday through Sunday only, though there will be a “Special Halloween Showtime” on Tuesday for a discounted price of $13.13.
Martin Scorsese “Killers of the Flower Moon” also added $9 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $40.7 million, according to Paramount.
Several of fall’s high-profile movies are also opening in very limited ways this weekend, including “The Relic” by Alexander Payne and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla””. Both companies are opening exclusively in New York and Los Angeles and will expand in the coming weeks.
Focus Features’ “The Reserve,” starring Paul Giamatti as a grumpy ancient history teacher at a New England prep school, debuted in six theaters and grossed an estimated $200,000. Dollar.
Coppola’s “Priscilla,” about the life of Priscilla Presley and Elvis Presley, also opened on four screens in New York and Los Angeles, averaging $33,035 per screen. “A24,” starring Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi, will be released nationwide next weekend with a cumulative box office of $132,139.
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