UPDATE: From Thursday through Sunday, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” exceeded expectations with box office receipts totaling $63M. That’s almost as much as 2026 Best Picture frontrunner, “One Battle After Another,” made in its entire 75 day theatrical rollout ($70M).
Additionally, “Kill Bill: Whole Bloody Affair,” earned $3.8M for Lionsgate. Tarantino didn’t do a single interview for the release, but he got more than enough media attention by criticizing Paul Dano on a podcast where, while not mentioning ‘The Whole Bloody Affair’ a single time, decided to unveil his 20 best films of the 21st century.
EARLIER: There’s a new “Five Nights at Freddy’s” out in theaters, backed by Universal/Blumhouse, and although it might not be something our readers will run to cinemas for, there’s a large audience for it out there.
The Thursday previews for “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” were very strong, as it nabbed $7.5M in Thursday previews. This is still much lower than the $10.3M its predecessor earned back in 2023.
The weekend for the sequel might land at $50M+, and that’s despite the atrocious reviews the sequel has earned. It currently sits at 12% on Rotten Tomatoes and 30 on Metacritic. However, given the legions of fans of the video game the franchise is based on, it doesn’t seem to matter much.
The original film, directed by Emma Tammi—who also helms the sequel—and based on a popular horror video game, opened to a record-breaking $80M on Halloween weekend. The numbers were “fueled by a very passionate under-25 demo.” It had been released simultaneously in theaters and on the Peacock streaming service, a mistake the sequel is not making.
That movie also earned terrible reviews—31% on Rotten Tomatoes—but that didn’t seem to matter much to Gen Z. ‘Freddy’ was one of the most unusual and surprising movie events of the year. It racked up $300M worldwide on a slim $20M budget.
‘Freddy’s’, based on a popular horror video game, starred Josh Hutcherson as a troubled security guard who accepts a nighttime job at an abandoned family entertainment center, where he discovers its four animatronic mascots are alive and kill anyone who is still there after midnight.
I have yet to see these movies, and there’s been absolutely no urge on my part to catch up with them.