Frightening Halloween Record Shattered by Five Nights At Freddy's Box Office Success

Article Overview

Five Nights at Freddy's breaks an October box office record with an impressive $80 million opening weekend.

The movie has achieved the fifth highest-grossing October opening weekend in history. Five Nights at Freddy's, directed by Emma Tammi, brings the murderous animatronics from the popular video game franchise to life.

The new Blumhouse horror film, Five Nights at Freddy's, directed and co-written by Emma Tammi, has made a surprising box office breakthrough. Based on the popular video game franchise created by Scott Cawthon, who also had a hand in writing the screenplay, the movie follows the story of Mike (played by Josh Hutcherson), a down-on-his-luck young man who becomes a nighttime security guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, a family restaurant where the animatronics come alive and turn murderous after dark.

According to Deadline, Five Nights at Freddy's has achieved remarkable success at the box office, earning a domestic total of $80 million in its opening weekend. This puts it as the fifth highest-grossing October opening weekend in the history of the domestic box office, trailing behind Venom ($80.2 million), Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($90 million), Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour ($92.8 million), and Joker ($96.2 million). What makes this achievement even more impressive is that none of these titles belong to the horror genre, making Five Nights at Freddy's the highest-grossing horror movie ever released in October, a crucial time for the genre during the Halloween season.

How Five Nights at Freddy's Compares to Other Recent October Horror Movies

The opening weekend of the Five Nights at Freddy's movie has surpassed expectations, earning an impressive $80 million, a significant $30 million more than initially predicted. It has also achieved remarkable milestones, such as being on par with Black Widow as the top-grossing day-and-date streaming release and securing the title of highest worldwide opening weekend for any Blumhouse production. Furthermore, its success in outperforming numerous other horror movies during a time when the horror genre is incredibly popular is equally noteworthy.

In addition to Five Nights at Freddy's, another recent horror movie surprised everyone by succeeding at the box office in October. Terrifier 2, released in October 2022, became a word-of-mouth hit and managed to earn $15.4 million despite its small budget of $250,000. However, due to its limited resources, Terrifier 2 had a modest opening weekend, grossing only $805,000 initially.

Similar to Five Nights at Freddy's, several of the highest-grossing October debuts belonged to Blumhouse horror movies. These include Paranormal Activity 3 ($52.5 million), Halloween Kills ($49.4 million), Happy Death Day ($26 million), and the 2018 release of Halloween ($76.2 million), which previously held the record for Blumhouse's biggest opening weekend. However, Freddy's managed to surpass the success of all these movies and more, thanks to its strong intellectual property and dedicated fan base.

Source: Deadline

Editor's P/S

As a Gen Z netizen, I'm thrilled to witness the box office success of Five Nights at Freddy's. The film's impressive $80 million opening weekend, surpassing expectations and setting a new record for the highest-grossing horror movie released in October, is a testament to the enduring popularity of the video game franchise and the horror genre as a whole. The movie's strong performance indicates that audiences are eager for more horror content, especially during the Halloween season.

The success of Five Nights at Freddy's also highlights the growing importance of intellectual property in the film industry. The movie's built-in fan base, established through the success of the video games, provided a solid foundation for the film's box office success. This trend of adapting popular video games into movies has proven to be a lucrative strategy for studios, as it allows them to tap into an existing audience that is already invested in the story and characters. Overall, the box office success of Five Nights at Freddy's is a positive sign for the horror genre and demonstrates the continued demand for high-quality, terrifying content.