{"id":330623,"date":"2025-12-07T16:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/330623\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T16:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T16:23:07","slug":"five-nights-at-freddys-2-debuts-to-63-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/330623\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ Debuts to $63 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAudiences returned to Freddy Fazbear\u2019s Pizza in force, turbocharging a traditionally sleepy post-Thanksgiving weekend at the box office<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2,\u201d the second film inspired by Scott Cawthon\u2019s popular horror game franchise, easily captured first place, opening to $63 million domestically. That topped projections<\/a> that had the film debuting to between $35 million to $40 million, though it does pale in comparison to the $80 million that \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s\u201d launched to in 2023. What made that result all the more impressive was that the first film simultaneously debuted in theaters and on Peacock. It went on to gross nearly $300 million on a $20 million budget. <\/p>\n

\n\tStill, \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2\u201d is an undeniable win for Universal, which released the film, and for Blumhouse<\/a>-Atomic Monster, which produced the picture and really needed it to work after slogging through an uncharacteristic rough patch. Blumhouse-Atomic Monster is one of Hollywood\u2019s biggest hitmakers, producing everything from \u201cThe Purge\u201d movies to \u201cGet Out,\u201d but the company\u2019s had a bruising 2025<\/a>, releasing duds like \u201cM3GAN 2.0,\u201d \u201cWolf Man\u201d and \u201cDrop.\u201d With last October\u2019s hit, \u201cBlack Phone 2,\u201d and now \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2,\u201d Blumhouse-Atomic Monster seems to be turning a corner. \u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2\u201d is also the latest video game adaptation to connect with audiences, joining the likes of \u201cA Minecraft Movie\u201d and \u201cThe Super Mario Bros. Movie.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese video game adaptations are slaying at the box office,\u201d says Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. \u201cThey have captured the attention of a younger generation of moviegoers like no other genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2\u201d was made for a lean $36 million, so it will be very profitable for the studio. Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail and Piper Rubio return for the sequel, which follows a former pizzeria night guard who must face off against an array of animatronic killers. Emma Tammi, who directed the first film, was behind the camera for the follow-up. Internationally, \u201cFive Nights at Freddy 2\u201d earned an estimated $46 million from 76 markets, including Mexico, the U.K., Australia, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Italy and France. That brings it global total to $109 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\u2019s \u201cZootopia 2<\/a>,\u201d which dominated the Thanksgiving box office, settled for second place earning a sizable $43 million. The animated sequel is already one of the year\u2019s biggest hits, having earned $220.5 million domestically and $915.8 million globally. It should easily top $1 billion in ticket sales. <\/p>\n

\n\tAnother hit sequel, \u201cWicked: For Good<\/a>,\u201d captured third place with $15.6 million in its third weekend of release. That pushes its domestic gross to $295.8 million through Sunday. <\/p>\n

\n\tGkids\u2019 \u201cJujutsu Kaisen: Execution,\u201d which cuts together portions of the \u201cJujutsu Kaisen\u201d anime series, debuted to an estimated $10.2 million, securing fourth place on the charts. Lionsgate\u2019s \u201cNow You See Me, Now You Don\u2019t\u201d rounded out the top five, earning $3.5 million to bring its domestic haul to $55.3 million. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn the indie front, Sony Pictures Classics released \u201cMerrily We Roll Along,\u201d a filmed version of the hit Broadway production of the Stephen Sondheim musical, debuted to $1.2 million on 1,084 screens. The show starred Jonathan Groff,\u00a0Daniel Radcliffe and\u00a0Lindsay Mendez and won the Tony for best musical revival. Bleecker Street debuted \u201cFackham Hall,\u201d a parody of stiff upper lip period films, in 1,112 locations where it earned $620,909. And Focus Features\u2019 \u201cHamnet\u201d expanded from 119 theaters to 744, earning $2.3 million. The acclaimed drama about William Shakespeare has earned $4.2 million since opening over Thanksgiving. It is expected to be a major Oscars contender. <\/p>\n

\n\tAlso of note, Quentin Tarantino\u2019s super-sized \u201cKill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair,\u201d which combines \u201cKill Bill: Vol. 1\u201d and \u201cVol. 2\u201d into one, four-and-a-half-hour epic, grossed an estimated $3.2 million. Much of the attention around QT lately hasn\u2019t been about reviving The Bride, but on the backlash<\/a> his dismissal of Paul Dano as \u201cthe limpest dick in the world\u201d has generated. <\/p>\n

\n\tTheater owners, who have struggled through a rough fall filled with flop films, are hoping that holiday hits like \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d and \u201cZootopia 2\u201d along with upcoming blockbusters like \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d will help them end a roller-coaster year on a high note. Overall, revenues are running roughly 1% ahead of 2024, which is a disappointment as many analysts expected this year to be more in line with pre-pandemic periods that saw ticket sales routinely top $9 billion annually. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvery film this holiday season is going to have to punch above its weight if we\u2019re going to get anywhere close to that benchmark,\u201d says Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at ComScore.<\/p>\n

\n\tBeyond a sluggish box office, movie theater operators are also facing existential questions<\/a> after news broke this week that Netflix, long viewed as an enemy of the cinematic experience, has a deal to buy Warner Bros. for $82.7 million. The prospect of the streaming giant swallowing up one of the movie business\u2019s most legendary studios has left exhibitors staring into the void. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNetflix is taking over one of the crown jewels of Hollywood, so you have to wonder if they will keep movies in theaters in a meaningful way or will they stay true to their business model, which has nothing to do with that,\u201d says Bock. \u201cNetflix already killed Blockbuster. Will they kill movie theaters too?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audiences returned to Freddy Fazbear\u2019s Pizza in force, turbocharging a traditionally sleepy post-Thanksgiving weekend at the box office.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11015,6471,49,48,75,56358,337,61746],"class_list":{"0":"post-330623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-blumhouse","9":"tag-box-office","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-five-nights-at-freddys-2","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-zootopia-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}