Five Nights At Freddy’s Makes Movie History, Will Hollywood Notice?
Variety reports that Five Nights at Freddy’s is dominating the box office and is on pace to earn $78 million upon the conclusion of its opening weekend. But what makes these projected earnings so impressive is that the supernatural horror film was released on two fronts and made available for streaming on Peacock at the exact same time as its theatrical debut. This release model has proven successful in the past with other Blumhouse production properties like Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, which both had strong opening weekends, but as of this writing, Five Nights at Freddy’s will trounce both films with its box office earnings.
Five Nights at Freddy’s hit theaters and the Peacock streaming service on the same day, but it’s still setting box office records.
Though a live-action adaptation of Scott Cawthon’s video game series of the same name has been a long time coming, it’s evident that it came out at just the right time because audiences are eating it up. In fact, given the projected numbers, Five Nights at Freddy’s may very well become one of the highest-earning October debuts ever. But we’ll have to see how everything shakes out because the movie is competing with titles like 2019’s Joker ($96.1 million) and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour ($92 million).
On the critical front, it’s clear that Five Nights at Freddy’s is quickly becoming a fan-favorite despite its less-than-desirable critical score on Rotten Tomatoes.
One possible reason that Five Nights at Freddy’s is performing so well is because of its PG-13 rating. It goes without question that some die-hard fans of the video game would have preferred an R rating, but allowing a wider range of viewers to watch the film without parental supervision is certainly helping the bottom line by getting younger audiences to see what all of the hype is about.
On the critical front, it’s clear that Five Nights at Freddy’s is quickly becoming a fan-favorite despite its less-than-desirable critical score on Rotten Tomatoes. As of this writing, the movie has an abysmal critical score of 26 percent against an audience score of 89 percent. This shows you that a critical darling isn’t necessarily what audiences are looking for, especially when it comes to a video game adaptation.
Five Nights at Freddy’s also drives the point home that Hollywood may sometimes be out of touch with what moviegoers are looking for when they seek out escapism in the form of going to a movie theater.
Simply put, sometimes an audience knows what it wants, and Five Nights at Freddy’s proves this concept. Though a film centered on animatronic mascots who are possessed by the spirits of murdered children may not be Oscar nominee material, the numbers don’t lie, and fans of the movie are claiming that it’s an excellent gateway movie for kids who are curious about the horror genre as a whole, but don’t want to be scared so stiff that they’re turned off entirely.
Five Nights at Freddy’s also drives the point home that Hollywood may sometimes be out of touch with what moviegoers are looking for when they seek out escapism in the form of going to a movie theater. In other words, if a critic isn’t the target audience for such a film, they will completely miss the mark with their review because they aren’t familiar with the established lore.
If you can’t make it out to theaters to check out Five Nights at Freddy’s, you should definitely ignore the naysayers and fire up Peacock to watch this bizarre film make history.
