Will Freddy Fazbear hit the box office jackpot again?
“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” a PG-13 horror sequel set in the haunted Chuck E. Cheese-esque establishment called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, is aiming for $35 million to $40 million from 3,300 North American theaters in its opening weekend. Although those projections are dramatically down from Universal and Blumhouse’s 2023 sleeper hit “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the first film adaptation of the popular video game had punched wildly above its weight with $80 million in its domestic debut. Those ticket sales were especially impressive considering the movie was streaming simultaneously on Peacock.
Unlike its predecessor, “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is only playing in theaters over the weekend. Despite the massive commercial success of the original — “Five Nights at Freddy’s” ended its run with nearly $300 million globally to stand as Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film of all time — Blumhouse founder Jason Blum has admitted he’s no longer a proponent of dropping a film in theaters and on streaming at the same time.
“I was very wrong. It was not good for the business,” Blum told Variety in October. “I learned the hard way, and I would prefer that the windows were at least consistent, because it’s very difficult for the consumer.”
Simultaneous releases aside, Blumhouse, the horror empire that’s known for low-budget hits, has endured a brutal year at the box office. Other than October’s “Black Phone 2,” the company has unloaded a string of misses over the last 11 months including “Wolf Man” and “M3GAN 2.0.” The “Five Nights” sequel hopes to cement a turnaround. It cost $36 million to produce, an increase from the first film’s $20 million production budget.
Emma Tammi returned to direct and video game series creator Scott Cawthon returned to write the second “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which brings back Josh Hutcherson as a former Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza security guard named Mike and gets into the origins of the creepy pizza joint. Reviews are under embargo but if the first film is any indication, critical sentiment won’t mean much in the eyes of the fans. “Five Nights at Freddy’s” was a box-office triumph despite a 33% “rotten” average on Rotten Tomatoes.
Hollywood tends to avoid releasing major films in early December, so “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” will help to prevent the first weekend of the month from dead-zone status. That being said, the scary sequel will be no match for Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which is primed to rule the box office again in its second weekend of release. The animated adventure is targeting $44 million to $50 million, a 50-55% decline from its $98 million debut. “Zootopia 2” landed in theaters the Wednesday ahead of Thanksgiving and earned a dazzling $158 million domestically over its first five days of release, as well as a staggering $559 million globally. “Zootopia 2” has since climbed to $169.8 million in North America and $616.7 million worldwide after seven days of release. At this rate, it’ll become the year’s second movie to join the $1 billion club after Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” in May.
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Meanwhile “Wicked: For Good” should slide to third place with $21 million to $25 million, a roughly 60% drop from the prior weekend. So far, Universal’s adaptation of the second half of “Wicked” has earned $269 million in North America and $391 million globally after three weekends of release.
Elsewhere, a smattering of new releases are aiming for single digits to start. Gkids’ anime adventure “Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution,” a compilation film and early look at the third season of the popular manga TV series, is projected to earn $8 million to $10 million. Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair,” which unites 2003’s “Volume 1” and 2004’s “Volume” 2 into a single, unrated 275-minute epic, could generate $5 million to $10 million from 1,000 theaters.
Then there’s Sony Pictures Classic’s “Merry We Roll Along,” a filmed version of the Broadway production starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, which should bring in $3 million. Ditto Bleecker Street’s “Fackham Hall,” a 1930s-set “Downton Abby” spoof that stars Damian Lewis, Thomasin McKenzie, Katherine Waterston and Tom Felton.
From Variety US