Five Nights at Freddy’s Sets New Box Office Record

Five Nights at Freddy’s set a new box office record. Five Nights at Freddy’s is finally here after a nearly decade long wait. After the video game Five Nights at Freddy’s blew up on YouTube in the early 2010s thanks to its incredible levels of tension, extreme jump scares, and unique premise. It wasn’t long before Hollywood decided it wanted a piece of the pie, either. Warner Bros. was the first company to try and adapt it, but it ended up falling apart and moved to Blumhouse. Now, after all these years, it’s finally here. Although the film is getting pulverized by critics, fans of the game seem to be receptive to it. 

On top of that, Five Nights at Freddy’s just set a new box office record. The film earned the best opening domestic day for a video game movie with $39.5 million at the box office. This means it even surpassed the likes of The Super Mario Bros. Movie which went on to take in over $1 billion. The fact that a horror movie managed to beat our an animated Mario movie is pretty impressive. It also shows the demand for this film and just how big the fanbase is for this franchise. It seems pretty likely with this much money behind it on day one, it will go well beyond the $50 million opening weekend the film was projected to have. We can probably also expect a sequel, if not multiple, in the coming years after how much of a hit this has been already.

Whether or not Blumhouse will evaluate the critical reception when making the inevitable sequels remains to be seen. There are quite a few fans happy with this adaptation while others have claimed it gets too flimsy with the lore of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Either way, it’s clear this is about to become a mainstream franchise. ComicBook reviewed the film and gave it a 2.5/5, noting it will likely work for younger audiences but feel too sterilized for older horror fans: “Since the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s nearly a decade ago, the franchise has become a giant with horror lovers. This means expectations for its movie adaptation were high, and sadly, Five Nights at Freddy’s did not meet them. The film’s sanitized scares strips the franchise of its legendary tension. When paired with its muddled story, the only thing that kept Five Nights at Freddy’s afloat for me was its filmography and Easter eggs. Even with its flaws, the film will likely impress young fans who’ve yet to develop a tolerance for horror. But, as for older fans, well – they will have no problem surviving their visit to Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.”