Universal and Blumhouse’s $36M net sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is looking to bring some life to what is typically an off weekend at the post holiday Thanksgiving box office. Last night, the sequel, which has director Emma Tammi back in the director’s chair, made $7.2M, which is -30% off from the $10.3M of the first film.
That first movie based on the 2014 videogame brought out a rabid fanbase, and at a time when the actors strike didn’t permit any kind of cast publicity. The pic went on to post an Oppenheimer $80M opening during the final weekend of October; and that’s even with a theatrical day-and-date availability on Peacock. This time, it’s a pure theatrical release for part 2.
Previews began yesterday at 2PM in 3,000 locations. Last night’s number is above that of A Quiet Place: Day One (a June release which posted $6.8M in previews and a $52.2M opening) and under that of Venom: The Last Dance ($8.5M previews, and $51M opening). Remember, it’s post-Thanksgiving, it’s only 20 days until Christmas, and there’s a lot of shopping to be done by people, and parties to attend.
Five Nights at Freddy‘s pulled in an audience that was 80% under 25, unprecedented in this day and age, and though more male skewing than female, 57% to 43%, the concern is that the female portion of this demo may not expand over the weekend. Heading into today, the forecast for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was $35M-$40M+ with Disney’s second frame of Zootopia 2 set to win with $50M. The first Friday for Five Nights at Freddy’s was $39.6M, with previews repping 26% of that number. Saturday fell a big -39%, which could have been partly due to the front-loaded nature of the crowd and the fact that the movie was available on Peacock.
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