Five Nights At Freddy's Gave Gen Z A Blockbuster To Call Their Own (And The Box Office Is Better For It)
It may not have been something onlookers (myself included) expected when glancing over the release calendar for 2023, but "Five Nights at Freddy's" is now one of the biggest movies of the year. Yes, it's only been in theaters for one weekend, but what the movie managed to do on that weekend is nothing shy of remarkable. The reason for the unexpectedly huge box office returns? Generation Z.
Released by Universal Pictures and produced by the horror masters at Blumhouse, "Freddy's" opened to $80 million domestically to go along with $52 million internationally. That $132 million total shattered even the most optimistic projections put forth by industry experts pre-release. It's now the biggest opening ever for Halloween weekend; by far the biggest opening weekend for a horror movie in 2023; tied with Marvel's "Black Widow" for the biggest ever day-and-date release ever; and the third-biggest opening weekend ever for a horror movie behind only "It" and "It Chapter Two."
The most amazing stat of all, though, is the fact that 81% of moviegoers were under the age of 25. Do young people still go to the movies? Yes. But it cannot be emphasized just how unusual it is for a single film to be so dominated by a single demographic. Young folks turned up in droves to see director Emma Tammi's video game adaptation in theaters even though they could've easily watched it at home on Peacock. They resoundingly chose the communal experience. That says a great deal.
Old nostalgia doesn't work for the kids
Yes, horror has been a remarkably consistent winner at the box office in the pandemic era — arguably the only consistent winner. But that doesn't come close to explaining the turnout for Gen Z moviegoers here. The fact of the matter is that so much franchise cinema simply isn't made with Gen Z in mind. Do younger moviegoers care all that much about Michael Myers and Laurie Strode? Sure, young people watched the recent "Halloween" movies, but they were straight-up rooted in decades-old nostalgia. The whole "legacy" sequel concept is built around serving older moviegoers first while, hopefully, getting younger fans on board for the future.
While some legacy sequels succeed greatly (like "Jurassic World"), they are still made with a "Millennials-first" mentality. Gen Z, quite frankly, has rarely been the direct target of Hollywood franchise plays in recent years. And sure, 10 years ago that demographic was still pretty young and didn't have much money. So why target them? But now, things are different. Many of these people have jobs and are adults now. More to the point, they grew up with the "Five Nights at Freddy's" games. This is a franchise that was made ridiculously popular specifically because Gen Z embraced it. Blumhouse, very wisely, made this movie with them in mind.
Sure, a lot of critics have been hard on the movie, but that truly didn't matter. The fact of the matter is that a great many critics who reviewed the film were far older than the target demographic. On the flip side, the film carries an 88% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes along with an A- CinemaScore. That is incredibly rare air for a horror film. The audience this movie was made for is eating it up. That 26% critical rating hardly matters.
Serving the next generation of moviegoers
Inevitably, Hollywood is going to look at the success of "Five Nights at Freddy's" and try to emulate it. That could result in more animatronic-based horror movies set at defunct restaurants (as oddly specific as that sub-genre is). It could also result in more adaptations of scary video games. Heck, it might even result in movies based on stuff that has become ridiculously popular on YouTube. And who knows? Maybe some of that could work, but that's probably not the right thing to take away here, broadly speaking
This is but the latest recent example of Hollywood finally serving the under-served and reaping the benefits. We've seen "Barbie" and "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" do gangbusters business at the box office this year by appealing directly to women. Likewise, back in 2022, there was the whole #GentleMinions sensation, in which young adults dressed up in suits to go see "Minions: The Rise of Gru" (a movie that ended up making $939 million worldwide). In that case, kids who grew up watching the "Despicable Me" and "Minions" films similarly turned out in droves to enjoy a piece of their childhood.
It's not official at the time of writing, but "Five Nights at Freddy's 2" is surely a matter of if and not when after this past weekend. For that matter, a trilogy seems like a foregone conclusion at this point. When your $20 million-budgeted movie that's available on a major streaming service still makes $132 million worldwide in a single weekend, you give the audience more. This is now Gen Z's blockbuster franchise. They made it what it is, and Hollywood would do well to authentically serve that audience from here on out.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" is now in theaters and streaming on Peacock.