\n\tIt\u2019s official: Blumhouse is back in fine form.<\/p>\n
\n\tFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2<\/a>, opening two months after Blumhouse hit Black Phone 2 debuted<\/a>, is on course to win the weekend with a sizeable $56.6 million from 3,412 theaters at the domestic box office<\/a> to score the top opening ever for the post-Thanksgiving frame, among other milestones. That is not adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n \n\tCritics snubbed the Universal and Blumhouse sequel \u2014 Freddy 2\u2018s current ranking on Rotten Tomatoes is 13 percent, compared to 33 percent for the first \u2014 but audiences don\u2019t seem to mind. Freddy\u2019s 2 earned a B CinemaScore (not bad for a horror title) and strong exits.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd while it won\u2019t match the $80 million domestic launch of the first Five Nights at Freddy\u2018s, it\u2019s hard to compare the two because of markedly different play patterns.<\/p>\n \n\tOther milestones: the sequel looks to score the second-best horror opening of the year so domestically behind\u00a0Atomic Monster\u2019s The Conjuring Last Rites<\/a> (Atomic Monster and Blumhouse merged in 2024); the year\u2019s highest opening so far for a PG-13 horror pic ahead of\u00a0Predator: Badlands; and the highest December horror opening ever at the domestic box office ahead of\u00a0Scream 2. <\/p>\n \n\tIn 2023, Blumhouse\u2019s box-office horror phenomenon\u00a0Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s, based on the blockbuster game series by Scott Cawthon about the oversized animatronic animal figures that inhabit Freddy Fazbear\u2019s Pizza, became the highest-grossing horror film of the year in earning north of $300 million globally. Josh Hutcherson<\/a> returns to lead the cast, with Emma Tammi also returning to direct.<\/p>\n \n\tThe sequel topped Friday\u2019s chart with a whopping $30.1 million, including previews.<\/p>\n \n\tDisney\u2019s record-smashing Thanksgiving tentpole <\/a>Zootopia 2<\/a> is looking at a second-place finish with $45 million from 4,000 sites, bringing its domestic total to north of $222 million through Sunday.<\/p>\n \n\tUniversal and Jon M. Chu<\/a>\u2018s Wicked<\/a>: For Good is falling off a relatively steep 75 percent in its third weekend to an estimated $15.6 million from 3,985 locations for a domestic tally of $296 million through Sunday, versus $322.1 million for the first Wicked at the same point in time (the first installment, opening over Thanksgiving 2024, declined 55 percent in it third outing). Similar to Zootopia<\/a>, Wicked 2<\/a> shattered numerous records during its opening<\/a> weekend before Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n \n\tGKIDS\u2019 new anime pic Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution is slotted to come in fourth with an estimated $10 million from 1,823 cinemas.<\/p>\n \n\tTwo Lionsgate titles \u2014 Quentin Tarantino\u2019s Kill Bill<\/a>: The Whole Bloody Affair<\/a> and Now You See Me: Now You Don\u2019t \u2014 are duking it out for fifth place with around $4 million each. They are playing in 1,198 and 2,626 theaters, respectively.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Whole Bloody Affair\u00a0unites 2003\u2019s\u00a0Kill Bill: Vol 1\u00a0and 2004\u2019s\u00a0Kill Bill: Vol 2\u00a0 for the first time and includes a new and never-before-seen anime sequence. The film\u2019s run time is well over four hours \u2014 or 281 minutes \u2014 but that, thankfully, includes a 15-minute intermission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official: Blumhouse is back in fine form. Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s 2, opening two months after Blumhouse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[5784,156,57055,110530,53453,86346,409,111,139,69,74302,10487,110531],"class_list":{"0":"post-170994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-box-office","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-five-nights-at-freddys","11":"tag-jon-m-chu","12":"tag-josh-hutcherson","13":"tag-kill-bill","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz","18":"tag-wicked","19":"tag-wicked-for-good","20":"tag-zootopia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}