Five Nights at Freddy’s was always expected to be a box office success, but it’s become a surprisingly huge hit, and there are a few reasons why. Based on the video game franchise of the same name, Five Nights at Freddy’s revolves around a security guard who discovers a dark secret while working the night shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Five Nights at Freddy’s scored a domestic opening of $78 million – which is $4.4 million shy of Universal’s other big 2023 release, Oppenheimer, which opened to $82.4 million – and a total of $130 million worldwide (via Deadline).
This was the best opening weekend for a horror film in 2023, as well as Blumhouse’s best opening, beating out Halloween’s $76.2 million opening from 2018. Five Nights at Freddy’s beat The Nun II for the biggest global horror opening of 2023. It’s the second biggest day-and-date opening (a simultaneous release in theaters and on a streaming service) after Black Widow’s $80.3 million opening in 2021. Five Nights at Freddy’s topped Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to become the second biggest opening for a video game adaptation after The Super Mario Bros. Movie. There are a handful of reasons for that success.
10 Five Nights At Freddy’s Was Panned By Critics But Adored By Fans
Although Five Nights at Freddy’s was panned by critics, it was a resounding success among the games’ fan base. Five Nights at Freddy’s has a “rotten” critics’ score of just 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it has a much more enthusiastic 88% audience score, with an impressive A- CinemaScore. The movie includes plenty of Easter eggs for diehard fans to pick up on, and while critics are generally unimpressed by Easter eggs, audiences lap them up. This is a classic example of a movie made for the fans, not for the critics.
9 Five Nights At Freddy’s Benefited From A Halloween Release
Being released on October 27, four days before Halloween, was hugely beneficial for Five Nights at Freddy’s. Audiences tend to be in the mood for a good fright around the spooky season. In 2022, Smile became an unexpected box office hit, and being released near Halloween was a big factor in that. After the disappointment of The Exorcist: Believer earlier in the month, moviegoers were hungry for a crowd-pleasing movie to watch near Halloween, and Five Nights at Freddy’s fit the bill.
8 Five Nights At Freddy’s Targeted A Young Demographic
Five Nights at Freddy’s targeted a young demographic, and those young viewers made it a hit. Aside from must-see adult dramas like Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon, most films targeting an older audience have bombed at the box office in recent years. Free time and disposable income are harder to come by than they used to be, and an adult’s trip to the movie theater often incurs extra costs like babysitters and parking. The biggest hits of the year, from The Super Mario Bros. Movie to Barbie to, indeed, Five Nights at Freddy’s, have appealed to younger viewers.
7 Five Nights At Freddy’s PG-13 Rating Opened It Up To A Wider Audience
The fact that Five Nights at Freddy’s went for a PG-13 rating helped its chances at the box office immensely. The PG-13 rating opened the movie up to a wider audience. It meant that young fans of the video game franchise could enjoy the movie on the big screen, and if their parents took them to see it, that’s another two ticket sales per 12-year-old game fan. If the movie had been rated R, it wouldn’t have made nearly as much money at the box office on its opening weekend.
6 Five Nights At Freddy’s Didn’t Have A Big Budget
Five Nights at Freddy’s was produced on a modest budget of $20 million. That’s not a shoestring budget by any means, but it’s a lot cheaper than recent commercial failures like The Creator and Expend4bles. The lower a film’s budget is, the lower its break-even point is. If Five Nights at Freddy’s had cost $100 million to produce, then its $130 million opening would be considered a disappointment. But, with a $20 million price-tag, it made back its production budget and its marketing budget and turned a profit in a single weekend.
5 The Horror Genre Is Usually A Safe Bet At The Box Office
There are no guaranteed hits in Hollywood. This year alone has seen the unexpected failure of a Pixar movie, a Marvel movie, and a long-awaited Indiana Jones movie. But some bets are safer than others and the horror genre has always been a safe bet. Horror films can be produced on a slim budget, they have a broad appeal, and they give audiences a reason to go out and see them in a theater with a crowd as opposed to streaming them at home.
4 Five Nights At Freddy’s Has A Huge Built-In Fan Base
One of the biggest reasons why Five Nights at Freddy’s has been such a big hit at the box office is that it already had a massive built-in fan base. The video game franchise that the movie is based on has a worldwide fan following, and those fans have been waiting years for the series to finally make it to the big screen. From The Super Mario Bros. Movie to HBO’s The Last of Us TV series to the Sonic the Hedgehog movies, video game adaptations tend to do well because they attract both existing fans and new fans.
3 Five Nights At Freddy’s Had Good Marketing
A lot of box office bombs are attributed to bad marketing and some blockbuster hits can be attributed to good marketing. Barbie’s 2001-spoofing teaser trailer sparked discussions about the movie around the world, months before it even hit theaters. Five Nights at Freddy’s had a good marketing campaign, too, that may have given its commercial performance a boost. Ads for the movie have been popping up all over the internet for a while now. The trailers gave audiences a clear idea of what the story was about and promised plenty of gruesome animatronic fun.
2 Five Nights At Freddy’s Didn’t Face Much Competition At The Box Office
Stiff competition can kill a movie at the box office, but Five Nights at Freddy’s didn’t have much competition at all. The second and third biggest movies of the weekend – Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour and Killers of the Flower Moon – were going for totally different demographics than Five Nights at Freddy’s, so there was room for all three to succeed without cannibalizing each other’s audience. The other big October horror release, The Exorcist: Believer, came and went a few weeks ago without making much of a splash.
1 There Was A Lot Of Hype Around Five Nights At Freddy’s
Some 2023 box office bombs, like Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, have suffered from a complete lack of hype around the film’s release. But thanks to its fervent fan base and intriguing trailers, there was a ton of hype around the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s. The hype started with fans of the games, but by the time the movie actually arrived in theaters, that hype had spread to casual audiences, too.
