Five Nights at Freddy's opens to $130 million at the worldwide box office

The FNAF movie has dethroned Halloween (2018) as Blumhouse's biggest global opening weekend.

Universal Pictures
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The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie debuted simultaneously in theaters and on the Peacock streaming service on Friday, bringing about Hollywood’s latest video game adaptation. The film was produced and distributed by Blumhouse in association with the creator of the games himself, Scott Cawthon. Fans of the horror series showed up big time, leading FNAF to a $130 million worldwide box office debut, setting a new record for Blumhouse.

The official numbers for Five Nights at Freddy’s opening weekend began to crystallize on Sunday, as reported by outlets like Variety. Of the $130 million made around the globe, $78 million of that was earned domestically. The worldwide total was enough to dethrone Halloween (2018) as the biggest opening weekend for the horror movie-focused production company.

Josh Hutcherson as Mike in Five Nights at Freddy's.

Source: Universal Pictures

The accolades don’t stop there for Five Nights at Freddy’s, either. It’s also the biggest opening weekend for a horror film directed by a woman (Emma Tammi), and is the second-biggest opening weekend for a horror movie in 2023 behind The Nun 2. Fans of the viral horror game series have spent the better part of the last decade waiting for a film adaptation, and it proved to be a worthwhile endeavor for Blumhouse and Scott Cawthon.

With such impressive numbers, it feels like a FNAF movie sequel is all but guaranteed. There is certainly plenty of material to explore and adapt in future installments. We recently held a special movie night watch party for Five Nights at Freddy’s as an extension of our Pop! Goes the Culture! show. Be sure to tune in this Thursday as we’ll be sharing our full review of the FNAF movie. Pay a visit to our movie and television topic pages for more stories about the latest video game adaptations happening across Hollywood.

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 30, 2023 7:50 AM

    Donovan Erskine posted a new article, Five Nights at Freddy's opens to $130 million at the worldwide box office

    • reply
      October 30, 2023 8:03 PM

      Watched it on Peacock this weekend. It was not scary. At all. I've never played any of the games and didn't really know what it was about other than animatronic robot and supposedly "horror".

      In general I just found it pretty bland. It wasn't necessarily bad. Just bland. I sure wouldn't have specifically paid to see it.

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        October 30, 2023 8:22 PM

        It’s a PG-13 movie for kids who want to feel like they’re reaching an R-rated movie, of course it’s going to be lame. It’s the Liquid Death of horror movies.

        Social media is filled with videos of people filming the post credits scene in the theaters. They nailed their target demographic.

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          October 30, 2023 8:40 PM

          Oh, I had no idea. Didn't even look at the rating. We just saw same as theater release day, hyped movie, supposedly horror. Ok we'll give it a try.

          I guess it tracks with what you said. Not bad, just meh.

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          October 30, 2023 8:43 PM

          Yep. This time of year families are looking for things to watch with their kids that are sort of scary for a kid, but not too bad otherwise. It fits the bill perfectly. My son (12) was stoked to see it and had fun calling out all of the stuff he knew about as we watched it. I know nothing of the series, but enjoyed watching the movie with him.

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      October 30, 2023 8:24 PM

      I didn't think that game series was anywhere near as popular to even warrant a movie?

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