Five Nights At Freddy's Is Now Blumhouse's Biggest Movie Ever At The Box Office
It was a very crowded holiday weekend at the box office, with Disney's "Wish" and director Ridley Scott's "Napoleon" taking the lion's share of attention, while Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" ended up topping the charts for a second weekend in a row in a surprise upset. While all of that was going on, Blumhouse's smash horror hit "Five Nights at Freddy's" quietly became the studio's biggest hit ever. Yes, as hard as it may be to believe, the video game adaptation now stands alone as the biggest of big hits from a studio that has delivered a great many hits over the last decade.
Director Emma Tammi's "Freddy's" managed to hold onto a spot in the top 10 over the Thanksgiving weekend, landing at number nine on the charts and taking in another $1.75 million domestically in its fifth frame. With that, the film's global total now stands at $295.5 million, making it far and away Blumhouse's biggest movie to date, per The Numbers. M. Night Shyamalan's "Split" ($278.7 million) was the previous record holder, followed by 2018's "Halloween" ($255.4 million), which remains the highest-grossing slasher movie in history.
What's most impressive here though is the fact that "Freddy's," which is based on the very popular series of video games created by Scott Cawthon, was released on Peacock on the same day it hit theaters. That means audiences have had the option to cheaply and readily watch the film at home from day one. Granted, Peacock is only available in the U.S. but given that this film has made $136.2 million of its total in North America, that's remarkable.
A scary big franchise is born
"Five Nights at Freddy's" centers on a troubled security guard who reluctantly takes a job at the long-abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. He soon realizes the late shift at Freddy's won't be so easy to survive, as the advanced animatronic characters that once made the place a hit with kids quite literally come alive at night. The film stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, and Matthew Lillard.
Jason Blum's Blumhouse has been the most reliable producer of hit horror movies in Hollywood for years now. Largely through a partnership with Universal Pictures, Blum's studio has mostly focused on making low-budget, low-risk, high-reward films. Jordan Peele's "Get Out" and Scott Derrickson's "Sinister" rank as a couple of big examples. In recent years, Blumhouse began playing with established properties, in no small part thanks to the success of "Halloween." What they've accomplished with "Freddy's" is a shining example of just how good Blum and Co. are at what they do.
The other thing that Blumhouse does better than just about anyone else in the business is capitalize on success. Sure, they have misfires – just look at last year's "Firestarter" – but when they win, they win big. When that happens, it pretty much always means a new franchise is born. Given that there are a number of games in the series with plenty of lore to explore, it's really only a matter of time before Universal makes it official by announcing a "Five Nights at Freddy's" sequel (if not more than one sequel). "M3GAN 2.0" was put on the fast track after the first film became a smash success earlier this year. One imagines the same thing will happen here as well. In short, get ready for more killer animatronic goodness in the years to come.
"Five Nights at Freddy's" is in theaters and streaming on Peacock now.