Five Nights At Freddy's Nears $300 Million At The Box Office, Get Ready For Some Sequels
Update 12/11/2023: Though we originally reported that "Five Nights at Freddy's" had passed $300 million at the worldwide box office, The Numbers later updated its stats and it looks like the movie is still slightly short at $293 million. Yes, like a panicked security guard using up his entire power supply just before 5 a.m. and getting caught by Foxy, "Five Nights at Freddy's" has almost made it ... but not quite. The headline has been updated to reflect this.
Original article follows.
Not that it wasn't already clear, but "Five Nights at Freddy's" has become a ridiculously big success story for both Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions. To further fuel that fire, with the money the video game adaptation pulled in over the weekend, it has officially crossed the $300 million mark at the global box office. All of this happening while "Five Nights at Freddy's" has been readily available to stream on Peacock at no additional cost to subscribers. A remarkable feat, to be certain.
"Freddy's" made $400,000 in its sixth frame domestically, per The Numbers. That now puts its running total at $136.9 million domestically and $163.4 million internationally for a grand total of $300.3 million. The film is certainly running out of gas and it probably won't add too much more to its total from here on out, though it still has a release in Japan set for February. Either way, this is a home run for all involved.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" had already become Blumhouse's highest-grossing film ever, which is no small thing. We're talking about the premiere horror studio in Hollywood over the last decade, which has franchises like "The Purge" and "Paranormal Activity" under its belt, as well as monster hits like "Split" and "Get Out." But this live-action take on Scott Cawthon's wildly popular video games now stands tall above the rest.
Blumhouse will now set about doing what it does best: turning a hit into a full-on franchise. As it stands, no sequel has formally been announced by Universal or Blumhouse. That having been said, it's inevitable at this point. Matthew Lillard has even suggested strongly that he (and presumably other members of the cast) signed on for a full trilogy.
A new cinematic horror franchise is born
When 2018's "Halloween" ($255.4 million) became the highest-grossing slasher film of all time, Blumhouse announced both "Halloween Kills" and "Halloween Ends" simultanoeusly. It feels quite possible that something similar could happen with "Five Nights at Freddy's," given the insane level of success. We're talking about a movie with a $20 million budget that was already in profit after its opening weekend.
Not to be lost in the conversation is the fact that audiences in the U.S. have been able to stream "Freddy's" on Peacock since the very same day the movie hit theaters. The fact that audiences have resoundingly chosen to go see it in theaters in spite of that is downright amazing. Yes, the film suffered a major drop-off domestically in its second weekend, most likely because of that streaming release, but nobody is crying for the studio here. Undoubtedly, Universal is going to make a mint on this one. Director Emma Tammi is probably going to be able to negotiate a very favorable deal for the sequel, and she's very much ready to make that sequel.
This is also further evidence that video game movies could be the next big gold rush in Hollywood. Long gone are the days of "Street Fighter" or "Doom." Aside from "Freddy's," we've also got "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" sitting pretty with more than $1.3 billion to its name this year, second only to "Barbie" in 2023. Other films in recent years such as "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Rampage" have further demonstrated that video game movies can do big business when executed correctly. "Five Nights at Freddy's" just so happened to have the benefit of the horror angle as well, with horror being one of the most consistently reliable genres at the box office.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" is in theaters and streaming on Peacock now.