Five Nights At Freddy's is headed for a huge opening weekend

Josh Hutcherson's animatronic nightmare might not be doing well with critics, but fans are coming out in droves

By William Hughes | October 28, 2023 | 9:29pm

Aux News Five Nights at Freddy's

Five Nights At Freddy's is headed for a huge opening weekend

Five Nights At Freddy’s Photo: Universal

Because nobody ever went broke betting on low-budget horror in October—unless, of course, they decided to shell out $400 million for the rights to that low-budget horror, cough, The Exorcist: Believer, cough—Universal and Blumhouse’s Five Nights At Freddy’s is on track to kick quite a bit of ass at the box office this weekend. Starring Josh Hutcherson and a host of creatures out of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (built on designs from the original, massively popular game franchise), the film is headed toward a hefty $78 million opening weekend—reportedly the biggest Halloween weekend opening, ever, as well as the biggest for a Blumhouse movie. (And the third biggest for a horror movie, period, trailing only behind the two recent It movies, according to THR.)

That’s obviously good news for the studios, given, well, Exorcist: Believer, which did not kick October off with an especially great start for the Universal/Blumhouse team-up. (Believer didn’t do god-awful, actually, tapping out at $112 million—except when you factor in that massive payout for the rights to the franchise.) Interestingly, Five Nights is scoring big money despite launching simultaneously on streaming, landing on the paid tier of Peacock at the same time it hits theaters, apparently drawing in audiences that want to experience PG-13-style horror as a group.