Box Office Report: A Record-Breaking Weekend From ‘Five Nights At Freddy’s’
Box Office analysis is provided by Daniel Garris of BoxOfficeReport.com.
Weekend Estimates Update - October 27th, 2023 to October 29th, 2023:
Universal and Blumhouse's Five Nights at Freddy's was off to a record-breaking start this weekend with an estimated first place debut of $78.0 million. The Emma Tammi directed video game based, PG-13 rated horror film set a new opening weekend record for a Blumhouse release, as Five Nights at Freddy's is estimated to outpace the $76.22 million debut of 2018's Halloween. Five Nights at Freddy's also easily set a new opening record for Halloween weekend (a record which previously belonged to Puss in Boots with a debut of $34.08 million back in October of 2011), and registered the second largest opening weekend ever for a video game based film (behind only Universal's The Super Mario Bros. Movie earlier this year) and the fifth largest opening weekend ever for the month of October. And when actuals are released on Monday, Five Nights at Freddy's could still potentially inch past the $80.26 million debut of 2018's Venom to claim the fourth largest October opening weekend ever instead. The opening weekend performance for Five Nights at Freddy's is made even more impressive by the fact that the film was released day-and-date this weekend (theatrically and via streaming on Peacock) and that critical reviews for the film have been quite poor. The PG-13 rating for Five Nights at Freddy's especially paid off in a big way at the box office, as the film had major appeal with younger moviegoers (more on that in a bit). On top of everything else, Five Nights at Freddy's also carried a very modest price-tag. Five Nights at Freddy's stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Mary Stuart Masterson and Matthew Lillard.
Five Nights at Freddy's started out with an exceptional $39.74 million on Friday (which included an estimated $10.3 million from Thursday preview shows that began early at 2PM), declined a sizable 39.0 percent on Saturday to gross $24.25 million and is estimated to decrease 42.2 percent on Sunday to gross $14.01 million. While Five Nights at Freddy's experienced initial slowing after Friday, the film's estimated opening weekend to previews ratio of 7.57 to 1 was still very solid for a fan-driven film of this size, thanks in part to the strength of the film's performance on Friday itself. As mentioned, Five Nights at Freddy's had major appeal with younger moviegoers, as a huge 80 percent of the film's audience was under the age of 25. Moviegoers under the age of 35 made up 94 percent of the film's audience, while just 6 percent of the film's audience was over the age of 35. The estimated audience breakdown for Five Nights at Freddy's also skewed 58 percent male and 42 percent female. Five Nights at Freddy's also played especially well with Hispanic American audiences, with Hispanic Americans representing 40 percent of the film's overall audience. And while the film hasn't gone over well with critics, Five Nights at Freddy's looks to be going over extremely well with initial audiences, as the film received an A- rating on CinemaScore, which is a very strong rating for a horror film.
Five Nights at Freddy's is likely to experience initial front-loading after Halloween on Tuesday, but the film could potentially stabilize thanks in part to its reception among younger moviegoers, which could also lead to the possibility of repeat business (especially among fans of the video game series) later in the film's run.
Five Nights at Freddy's also impressed internationally this weekend with an estimated debut of $52.58 million from 64 international markets. That places the film's global launch at $130.6 million. Five Nights at Freddy's was especially impressive in Latin America markets this weekend. Estimated debuts for Five Nights at Freddy's by international market included $10.8 million in Mexico, $6.3 million in the United Kingdom, $3.9 million in Brazil, $3.8 million in Australia, $2.6 million in Germany, $2.3 million in Argentina, $2.0 million in Poland, $1.9 million in Chile, $1.7 million in Peru and $1.5 million in Saudi Arabia. Five Nights at Freddy's still has a handful of major markets to open in, including Spain this coming Wednesday (November 1), Italy this Thursday (November 2), France the following Thursday on November 8, South Korea on November 15 and Japan on February 9 of 2024.
After leading the box office for each of the past two weekends, AMC Theatres Distribution's release of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film placed in second this weekend with an estimated $14.70 million. The concert film declined a sizable 55.7 percent from last weekend, which represented a respectable weekend hold, especially given the break-out performance of Five Nights at Freddy's and that the film and the marketplace in general also had to deal with Halloween weekend festivities. With the inclusion of Thursday's $2.65 million performance, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film had a third weekend four-day estimated "weekend event" gross of $17.35 million. Through eleven days of total release, Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film has grossed a very impressive $149.36 million to date domestically. While Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film hasn't been screening from Monday through Wednesday, on this Tuesday the film will be screening for Halloween. Many locations, including all U.S. AMC Theatres locations will be offering tickets for the concert film at a discounted price of $13.13 for October 31.
This weekend also saw Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour concert film surpass the $200 million global mark. The concert film grossed an estimated $6.7 million internationally this weekend, which brings the film's international total to $53.7 million and current global haul to $203.0 million.
Meanwhile, following last weekend's promising start, Paramount and Apple's Killers of the Flower Moon had a lackluster second weekend performance by declining a sharp 61.3 percent to place in third with an estimated $9.00 million. In the past, collaborations between director Martin Scorsese and star Leonardo DiCaprio have tended to have had back-loaded, word-of-mouth driven runs at the box office, but after this weekend it's looking like that likely won't be the case for Killers of the Flower Moon. Making this weekend's hold even more disappointing (and more puzzling), is that there doesn't seem to be much overlap between the audiences for Killers of the Flower Moon and Five Nights at Freddy's, and that Killers of the Flower Moon held onto its IMAX screens this weekend. The ten-day domestic total for the expensive Killers of the Flower Moon stands at $40.68 million. With an estimated domestic IMAX gross of $1.1 million this weekend, Killers of the Flower Moon has grossed $5.3 million from domestic IMAX screens.
In some good news for the critically acclaimed film, Killers of the Flower Moon held up significantly better internationally this weekend by taking in an estimated $14.1 million from 64 international markets. Respective totals for Killers of the Flower Moon stand at $47.4 million internationally and $88.0 million globally. Estimated totals for Killers of the Flower Moon by international market through Sunday include $6.8 million in the United Kingdom, $5.3 million in France, $3.6 million in Germany, $2.9 million in Spain and $2.7 million in Australia. Killers of the Flower Moon grossed an estimated $1.2 million from international IMAX screens this weekend, for respective IMAX totals of $3.6 million internationally and $9.0 million globally.
Angel Studios' After Death was off to a solid fourth place start this weekend with an estimated $5.06 million. The faith-based documentary film about near-death experience survivors performed in line with expectations and also performed very nicely for a documentary film in general. The opening weekend performance of After Death came in just below the $5.50 million start of Angel Studios' His Only Son earlier this year (though it should be noted that His Only Son opened in 1,920 locations, in comparison to 2,605 locations for After Death). After Death started out with $2.20 million on Friday, declined 27.7 percent on Saturday to take in $1.59 million and is estimated to decline 20.0 percent on Sunday to gross $1.27 million. The documentary film looks to be going over well with audiences, as it received a healthy A- rating on CinemaScore. After Death was directed by Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke.
Universal and Blumhouse's The Exorcist: Believer grossed an estimated $3.10 million to round out this weekend's top five. The Exorcist: Believer declined a respectable 45.6 percent from last weekend, as the release of the younger skewing Five Nights at Freddy's doesn't look to have had that much of an impact on The Exorcist: Believer. Through 24-days of domestic release, The Exorcist: Believer is just shy of reaching the $60 million domestic mark with a domestic total of $59.37 million. Internationally, The Exorcist: Believer grossed an estimated $4.2 million this weekend from 80 international markets. That brings the film's international total to $61.0 million and current global haul to $120.4 million.
Also opening in wide release this weekend was Relativity Media's Freelance, which debuted modestly in seventh place with an estimated $2.06 million. The Pierre Morel directed action comedy stars John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba and Christian Slater. Freelance has gone over very poorly with critics, but the film looks to be going over better with audiences after receiving a so-so B- rating on CinemaScore.
In international box office news, Universal and DreamWorks Animation's Trolls Band Together grossed an estimated $13.4 million from 43 international markets. After its second weekend of international release, Trolls Band Together has grossed $36.1 million to date internationally. This weekend saw Trolls Band Together open with $1.5 million in Mexico and $1.2 million in Spain. Additional estimated totals for Trolls Band Together by international market through Sunday include $10.8 million in the United Kingdom, $5.3 million in France, $3.2 million in Brazil, $3.1 million in Germany, $1.8 million in the Netherlands and $1.3 million in Denmark. Trolls Band Together will open domestically on November 17.
Read more at BoxOfficeReport.com
