Viewers have a few movie watching options this Halloween season. A Haunting in Venice, Saw X, The Exorcist: Believer, The Nun II, and Disney Studios 30th anniversary re-releases of Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas all make up the top 15 films at the box office for the weekend proceeding Halloween 2023. But none of these horror films have quite made an opening weekend killing like the highly anticipated Five Nights at Freddy’s.
A concoction of horror produced by Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions, and ScottGames, Five Nights at Freddy’s managed to devour $78M of the domestic box office the weekend of Oct. 27, despite simultaneously being released on Universal’s streamer, Peacock.
Released in 3,675 theaters, the pic earned $39.7M on Friday (Oct. 27), before declining 39% to $24.3M on Saturday (Oct. 28), and 42.2% to $14M on Sunday (Oct. 29). Another $52.6M made in international territories aided in solidifying an impressive $130.6M worldwide cume.
The only other film at the box office that has made this kind of splash in recent weeks is Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The concert spectacular opened stateside at $92.8M in 3,855 theaters the weekend of Oct. 13, and has since earned another $46.6M for a whopping domestic box office total of $139.4M.
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In contrast, Paramount Pictures’ Justin Bieber: Never Say Never opened to $29.5M back in 2011, eventually earning a final worldwide cume of $99M — the 2013 follow-up, Open Road’s Justin Bieber’s Believe opened to $2M and accumulated $10.9M in worldwide box office.
Katy Perry’s Part of Me, another Paramount film, had a domestic opening of $7.1M and a final worldwide cume of $32.7M in 2012. Keep in mind, these documentary films came out at the height of both Justin Bieber and Katy Perry’s music careers. Just goes to show the magnitude of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. Up next in the concert documentary space is RENAISSANCE: A FILM BY BEYONCÉ, in theaters Dec. 1.
Back to Halloween films, Five Nights at Freddy’s really ran on audience excitement and that very clearly showed in ratings. Critics weren’t too happy with the film, giving it 28% on RT and a score of 33 on Metascore. Audiences felt differently, graciously rating the film 88% on RT, but giving it a “meh” rating of 5.6 out of 10 on IMDb.
The main critique, Five Nights at Freddy’s started off with a hitch only to fall off midway through the film with what many are saying is a “yawn fest” of good ideas gone bad. In Five Nights at Freddy’s, Mike Schmidt, a security guard down on his luck, and his little sister unravel the mysterious past and current horrific happenings of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
Watch The Official Trailer For Five Nights At Freddy’s
The feature stars Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Piper Rubio (Unstable), Matthew Lillard (voice, Robot Chicken), Mary Stuart Masterson (For Life), and Elizabeth Lail (Mack & Rita). The screenplay was written by Tammi, Scott Cawthon, and Seth Cuddeback.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is in theaters and streaming on Peacock now.
