Five Nights At Freddy’s Biggest Movie Risk Paid Off (& It’ll Shape Five Nights At Freddy’s 2)

While Five Nights At Freddy’s took a big risk with the horror movie’s rating, the video game adaptation’s runaway success means that Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 will almost certainly repeat this approach. Five Nights At Freddy’s was a sleeper hit among gamers when the indie survival horror game arrived back in 2014, but it took nine years for its movie adaptation to finally happen. For quite some time, it seemed as if the Five Nights At Freddy’s movie would never materialize, as a string of names joined and exited the project. However, October 2023 saw the movie’s long-awaited release.

By the end of Five Nights At Freddy’s box office run, the long-delayed movie adaptation had become the next big horror franchise. Despite Five Nights At Freddy’s leaving out game lore from the source series, the movie was a huge hit with audiences and earned $297 million on a budget of $20 million. What made this payday all the more impressive was the fact that Five Nights At Freddy’s was simultaneously released on Peacock and in theaters, a strategy that could have limited its box office performance. As the upcoming Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 approaches, repeating its predecessor’s success is sure to be a top priority.

Five Nights. At Freddy’s PG-13 Rating Was A Good Idea

The movie’s box office performance proves its family-friendly rating worked

One of the riskier creative decisions made by the creators of the video game adaptation was its rating. Five Nights At Freddy’s was rated PG-13 which understandably resulted in some commentators wondering whether the movie would be able to faithfully recreate the intensity of the original games. Even though PG-13 horror movies have been the subject of some scorn over the years, it turned out that this family-friendly rating was a great idea after all. Keeping Five Nights At Freddy’s PG-13 made the movie less of a self-serious, visceral horror and more of an Amblin-inspired suburban gateway horror with fantasy elements.

While Mike’s dreams in Five Nights At Freddy’s ensured the adaptation had its fair share of creepy moments, there was little in the way of onscreen gore. Instead of making the movie feel toothless, this instead accentuated the few brutal deaths that were included in the adaptation. Maxine’s death was more effective thanks to the slow build-up and lack of gory horror in earlier scenes, much like William Afton’s infamous fate in the ending of Five Nights At Freddy’s. Audiences agreed, with Five Nights At Freddy’s becoming a hit, due in no small part to many of 2023’s biggest horror films being less family-friendly.

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 Is Almost Certain To Be PG-13

The original movie and M3GAN proved that the rating can mean box office success

The Nun 2, Scream VI, and Evil Dead Rise were all blockbuster hits, but each was darker and gorier than its respective franchise’s previous entry. In contrast, M3GAN and Five Nights At Freddy’s went for a more inclusive age rating and this gamble paid off big at the box office. Now, Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 is almost certain to be rated PG-13 since the sequel will hope to meet the expectations set by the first film. Five Nights At Freddy’s proved that a horror movie’s PG-13 rating isn’t always bad news, meaning Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 would benefit from sticking to this winning formula.