Every Box Office Record Broken By Five Nights At Freddy’s

Summary

• Five Nights at Freddy’s had the best opening weekend for a horror film in 2023, surpassing Scream VI’s record.
• It had the highest Halloween opening weekend, beating Puss In Boots’ decade-old record.
• The film achieved the biggest global horror opening of 2023 and became the highest-grossing horror film of the year.

Five Nights at Freddy’s has broken multiple important box office records during its impressive run. Blumhouse, the production company behind the adaptation of the video game franchise of the same name, scored a major hit as Five Nights at Freddy‘s box office outgrossed its budget 14 times over. Five Nights at Freddy’s follows Josh Hutcherson’s Mike who gets a night job at a haunted restaurant where the creepy animatronics come to life at night. Despite being released in theaters at the same time as its streaming release on Peacock, Five Nights at Freddy’s success at the box office was not derailed.

Five Nights at Freddy’s box office opening weekend during Halloween weekend was a great start for a horror movie. However, there were some impediments that could have stopped the video game adaptation from becoming a box office success. One of them included the fact that it was released during the SAG-AFTRA strike, stopping the actors from doing any promotion for the film. The second stumbling block for the film would’ve been its same-day streaming premiere. Luckily, none of those stopped the film from breaking records. Since its premiere, it made $284.1 million worldwide, with a domestic haul of $136.3 million (via Box Office Mojo), becoming a box office gem for Blumhouse.

10 Five Nights At Freddy’s Had The Best Opening Weekend For A Horror In 2023

It stole the crown from Scream VI

Although it was Halloween weekend, it was not guaranteed that the movie would be a success. Five Nights at Freddy’s had a great opening weekend that shattered several records. The film earned an enormous gross on its opening weekend, and Five Nights at Freddy‘s film projections jumped $10 million to keep up with the money it made on its first day. On Friday, the movie had already banked $39.4 million (including Thursday night previews), and made $80 million in its opening weekend in North America. Prior to Five Nights at Freddy’s, the most successful horror film had been Scream VI, which had an opening weekend of $44.4 million.

9 Five Nights At Freddy’s Had The Highest Halloween Opening Weekend

The last film to do it was not a horror film

Five Nights at Freddy’s had already broken the records for the biggest horror movie of 2023, but it was just getting started. Besides that honor, Five Nights at Freddy’s managed to beat a Halloween weekend record set over a decade ago. With its $80 million opening, the video game adaptation beat 2011’s Puss In Boots, which had opened up on Halloween weekend to a record $34 million. Surprisingly, the non-horror movie about a beloved animated character from the Shrek franchise held onto this Halloween record until Five Nights at Freddy’s.

8 Five Nights at Freddy’s Had Biggest Global Horror Opening Of 2023

The video game adaptation did well worldwide

Besides its opening weekend records domestically, Five Nights at Freddy’s didn’t stop there. On top of its $80 million from North America, the horror film added a total of $52 million in international markets. That way, it went ahead of The Conjuring spin-off, The Nun II‘s worldwide box office run of $85.3 million in its first weekend, and earned the biggest global horror opening of 2023 with $132 million.

7 Five Nights At Freddy’s Was The Best Opening Ever for Blumhouse

It smashed Halloween’s record

Five Nights at Freddy’s became production company Blumhouse’s best opening ever. The film beat the previous record-holder for Blumhouse’s best opening ever, 2018’s Halloween. The slasher movie came with an established franchise, and it grossed $91.8 million globally in its opening weekend. That means Five Nights at Freddy’s $132 million global gross beat the Halloween film by nearly $40 million.

6 Biggest Ever Domestic Opening For A Horror Film Directed By A Woman

Five Nights at Freddy’s director also broke records

Five Nights at Freddy’s box office records don’t stop here. The film also managed to become the biggest-ever domestic opening for a horror film directed by a woman (via Forbes). Five Nights at Freddy’s has Emma Tammi at the helm, who previously directed 2018’s The Wind and the horror anthology Into the Dark. This performance also puts Tammi and Five Nights at Freddy’s a spot in history as one of the 10 best opening weekends for a woman-directed movie.

5 Tied Biggest-Ever First Day For A Film With A Simultaneous Streaming Release

The film shares the box office record with Marvel’s Black Widow

Five Nights at Freddy’s was simultaneously released on Peacock, which meant it tied the biggest opening ever with a simultaneous streaming release with 2021’s Black Widow with $80 million (via Variety). The streaming release could have negatively impacted the box office, but the movie became the most-watched film on the service and had the biggest subscription drive on Peacock. It’s also worth noting that Five Nights at Freddy’s managed to beat The Super Mario Bros. Movie on streaming, which is no small feat.

4 Biggest Opening Weekend Ever For Universal And Peacock’s Hybrid Releases

The previous record went to the famous Halloween franchise

Five Nights at Freddy’s was not a win only for Blumhouse, but for Universal and Peacock’s hybrid releases, too. Universal used the same move of debuting a film in cinemas and on streaming simultaneously for its Halloween sequels, which saw 2021’s Halloween Kills open to $49 million and 2022’s Halloween Ends open to $40 million. In its opening weekend, Five Nights at Freddy’s $80 million managed to beat the famous franchise Halloween‘s sequels with relative ease.

3 Best Debut Ever For A PG-13 Horror Film

Five Nights at Freddy’s beat a film from two decades ago

One of the things that worked in Five Nights at Freddy’s favor was the fact that it’s a horror film with a PG-13 rating. The movie was therefore more accessible to a broader audience, allowing the younger fans of the franchise to go see the film. This meant Five Nights at Freddy’s $80 million debut beat a two-decade-old film, 2001’s PG-13 horror The Mummy Returns, which had opened with $68 million.

2 Five Nights At Freddy’s Became Blumhouse’s Highest-Grossing Release Worldwide

Blumhouse has been producing movies since the early 2000s, and it has delivered some of the best horror franchises like Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge, and many others. Five Nights at Freddy’s is only one of them, and it became Blumhouse’s highest-grossing release worldwide of all time, with $284.1 million at the time of publication. It also was the 19th Blumhouse movie to be number one at the domestic box office. Another thing to note about Blumhouse is that Five Nights at Freddy’s pushes Blumhouse’s total domestic box office to over $3 billion (via The Numbers), further establishing the brand as a titan in the horror field.

1 Five Nights At Freddy’s Is The Highest-Grossing Horror Film Of 2023

After all the records it broke, it’s only natural that Five Nights at Freddy’s is the highest-grossing horror film of 2023. Despite Five Nights at Freddy’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score, the audiences continued to watch the film in theaters and loved it. This is no small accomplishment for the video game movie, considering it is a “new” franchise for moviegoers. It still managed to outperform sequels in the Scream, Conjuring, Saw, Insidious, and Evil Dead franchises. That’s a massive indicator of the film’s popularity and how much Five Nights at Freddy’s resonated with its target audience.

Source: Box Office Mojo, Forbes, Variety

• Five Nights at Freddy’s

  Release Date:

  2023-10-27

  Director:

  Emma Tammi

  Cast:

  Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kevin Foster, Jade Kindar-Martin, Jessica Weiss, Roger Joseph Manning Jr.

  Runtime:

  109 Minutes

  Genres:

  Horror, Thriller

  Writers:

  Scott Cawthon, Seth Cuddeback, Emma Tammi

  Story By:

  Scott Cawthon, Chris Lee Hill, Tyler MacIntyre

  Budget:

  $25 Million

  Studio(s):

  Blumhouse Productions, Scott Cawthon Productions, Striker Entertainment

  Distributor(s):

  Universal Pictures

  Franchise(s):

  Five Nights at Freddy’s