Historically, the first weekend of December/post-Thanksgiving frame is one of the worst weekends of the year. But if you book it, they will come. Specifically, a tentpole and that’s Universal and Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 which is looking at $35M-$40M+ domestic, and another $30M+ abroad for a global start around $70M.
Even though the sequel, which has Emma Tammi back in the director’s chair, is bound for the No. 2 spot, behind Disney’s second weekend of Zootopia 2 (around $50M, -50%, due to great word of mouth), it’s going to be a very bountiful weekend at the box office, potentially surpassing last year’s first weekend of December record of $137.2M. That’s with the third weekend of Wicked: For Good added in which is eyeing around a -55% hold or $27.7M.
The top three movies last year in the first frame of December – Moana 2, Wicked, and Gladiator II– grossed just over $100M.
In addition, there’s a lot of low single digit openings from a slew of classic and indie label wide entries, i.e. Bleecker Street’s British satire Fackham Hall (1,112 theaters), Lionsgate’s distribution deal of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (which has limited showtimes given its length at 1,100), Sony Pictures Classics’ Daniel Radcliffe, Jonthan Groff, Lindsay Mendez filmed stage musical, Merrily We Roll Along (1,200 theaters), GKIDS’ Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution (1,833 theaters), and IFC’s 1000 Nights of Hero (1,000 theaters).
The first Five Night at Freddy’s played during fall 2023 when the strikes walloped the box office, debuted to an amazing $80M stateside, a record for a day-and-date release as the title received a simultaneous release on Universal’s streaming service Peacock. Five Nights at Freddy’s pulls in a highly devout 18-25 demo, guaranteed to show up at cinemas in full costume. It doesn’t matter where reviews are as the franchise is critic-proof, chapter one getting hit by critics at 33% on Rotten Tomatoes and an A- on CinemaScore. The sequel is booked at 3,300 theaters. Previews start at 2PM on Thursday. Collectively, the trailers for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 have scared up nearly 400 million global views to date.
The offshore read on Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is that it will come in lower than that previous film. We are in a different time and at a different momentum. The Josh Hutcherson part two hits 76 markets. Those include majors Korea and France which open on Wednesday, followed by Mexico, Brazil, Italy, Germany and Australia on Thursday; and then the UK and Spain on Friday. Japan comes later, on January 23. Five Nights at Freddy’s finaled at $137.2M domestic, $271.5M global and minted $161M in profit during its first cycle.
In Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, more than one year has passed since the supernatural nightmare at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Former security guard Mike (Hutcherson) and police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail) have kept the truth from Mike’s 11-year-old sister, Abby (Piper Rubio), concerning the fate of her animatronic friends. However, Abby sneaks out to reconnect with Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, which sets into motion even more chaos, and a new gang of robotic cohorts, from the dumpy, haunted pizza parlor.