411 Box Office Report: Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 Takes Top Spot With Hefty $63 Million Start

PG-13 animatronic horror reigned at the box office this weekend as Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 surpassed Zootopia 2 with surprising ease to take #1. The video game adaptation sequel brought in $63 million for the weekend, a big overperformance from $45 million estimates heading into the frame. That marks the biggest opening for the post-Thanksgiving weekend with ease, topping The Last Samurai which took in $24.2 million in 2003. It also ranks as the biggest post-Thanksgiving weekend take ever, beating the $51.2 million grossed last year by Moana 2 in its second weekend.

Freddy’s 2 is behind the $80 million opening for the original Five Nights At Freddy’s in October of 2023. But who cares? That was always expected to be the case. The original had a massive drop-off in successive weeks and it was not particularly popular outside of its Gen Z demographic. Plus, we are talking about a sequel here and drop-offs are the norm from film to film.

As it turns out, the fan anticipation for this was much larger than expected. Critics hate it with a mere 12% aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences are enjoying it. The film has a B CinemaScore, which is a significant dropoff from the first’s A- but still strong for horror. And the RT audience rating is an 88%, right on par with the first’s 86%.

The message is clear here: Universal and Blumhouse got the right messaging out. It added $46.1 million overseas for a $109.1 million worldwide start. And that’s all against a $36 million budget, meaning this is already a cash cow for the studio. The bigger question is whether it will follow the first film’s massive drop-off. Five Nights 1 only legged out to 1.72 times its opening weekend. Even if it drops, expect this to at least ready $120 million and probably much higher, more than enough profit for the studios. Safe to say that Freddy Fazbear and company will probably be back.

Zootopia 2 may have taken second place, but it was more than excellent shape when you consider all the factors. The Disney Animation’s sequel took in $43 million, about what was expected. That’s a 57% drop from last weekend’s three-day take.

That’s a much bigger drop than the first film’s 32% second weekend fall. But you must understand the context. The first film opened in March 2016 and had no competition for younger audiences – certainly not one like Five Nights At Freddy’s 2. Freddy’s skews to older kids, but that’s still a chunk of the audience. And further, the post-Thanksgiving weekend always sees bigger falls (more on that in a moment).

Either way, Disney isn’t sweating this. Mostly, they’re not too worried because they see overseas numbers. In just two weekends, Zootopia 2 is already up to an enormous $915.8 million worldwide (including the $220.5 million domestic). The overseas numbers are already higher than the overseas for the first Zooptopia. And it’s not like those domestic numbers are something to sniff at. As it stands, Zootopia 2 is aiming at least the first film’s $350 million and probably a bit higher. The budget was $150 million.

Wicked: For Good took a hefty drop in its third weekend. The musical sequel was down 73% to $16.8 million. Again, the post-Thanksgiving slump came into play here. Wicked is still in great shape financially with $297 million domestically and $440.2 million worldwide. It may not top $400 million stateside at this point but it’s a big hit against a $150 million budget.

Anime notched another win at the box office with Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution. The action film took in $10.2 million, beating out expectations in the mid-single digits. We’ve spoken at length about how well anime is performing at the box office this year, and this is another win for GKIDS.

Jujutsu Kaisen may not have delivered at the numbers of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle or Chainsaw Man: The Movie Reze Arc, but it’s also a more niche property. In addition, GKIDS doesn’t have the marketing machine behind it that those two Sony/Crunchyroll-distributed films did. The film will, like all anime films, drop hard in its second weekend. But with a worldwide take so far of $40.4 million, it’s already profitable. $20 million domestically is likely the endgame.

Now You See Me: Now You Don’t continues to show strength, as it was down 49% in its fourth weekend with $7 million. The heist caper looks profitable for Lionsgate, a win they desperately needed, at $55.3 million in the US and $209.3 million worldwide. It’s still on course for around $70 million in the US. The production budget was $90 million.

This weekend saw the long-awaited release of Quentin Taratino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, and it did well. The combined Kill Bill saga took in $3.3 million, slightly above where it analysts predicted it to land. That may not sound like much even for a re-release. However, it takes a particular kind of movie-goer to go watch a four and a half-hour version of a film that – let’s be honest – they probably already own both halves of.

The Whole Bloody Affair has earned praise from critics with a 100% RT critic aggregate and a 99% RT audience rating. This is all extra profit for Lionsgate. It will be gone by next weekend, but a win is a win.

A24’s Eternity scored very strong numbers in its second weekend. The Elizabeth Olsen-led romcom was down a mere 14% this weekend with $2.7 million. That’s exactly what the studio needed to let its profit strategy – more skewed toward digital revenue than other studios – play out here.

To be clear, Eternity will not be profitable off theaters alone. It has $9.6 million domestically and $9.9 million worldwide. But it may get close enough that home viewing will bring the $15 million-budgeted film over the line. It should finish out with around $16 million in the US.

Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet expanded into 744 theaters this weekend and boosted its numbers big-time. The Oscar-buzzworthy drama took in $2.3 million, up 150% from last weekend’s start. There’s still a ways to go with the film, which will likely continue to platform up as Focus Features uses its positive word of mouth to get more awareness of it.

At this point, Hamnet has $4.2 million domestically with no international numbers in yet. We still don’t know its budget but it’s off to a good start. We’ll have to see how the platformed release strategy to plays out to see how high it gets.

Moviegoers Entertainment released the Hindi-language crime drama Dhurandhar into just under 400 theaters and it did well, with $2 million. The film from Aditya Dhar performed the way a lot of Indian cinema does, scoring with its very targeted audiences in the US where it’s just extra cash on top of a more Indian-focused release. The film has $10.4 million worldwide, and will be gone from the top 10 next week.

Predator: Badlands closed out the top 10 with $1.9 million. That pushed the sci-fi action film to $88.3 million and $177.6 million worldwide. The film is looking like it will close a little over $90 million stateside, perhaps $95 million, against a $105 million budget.

It will be a repeat battle at the box office next weekend between Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 and Zootopia 2, with the latter more likely to prevail. The only new release is the political dramedy Ella McCay, which will be in the low single digits. The 45th anniversary rerelease of The Shining and the 25th anniversary rerelease of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas should both hit similar points.

Box Office Top Ten (Three-Day Domestic Numbers)

1. Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 – $63 million ($63 million total, $109.1 million WW)
2. Zootopia 2 – $43 million ($220.5 million total, $917.8 million WW)
3. Wicked: For Good – $16.7 million ($297 million total, $440.1 million WW)
4. Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution – $10.2 million ($10.2 million total, $40.4 million WW)
5. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t – $7 million ($55.3 million total, $209.3 million WW)
6. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair – $3.3 million ($3.3 million total, $3.3 million WW)
7. Eternity – $3.2 million ($9.6 million total, $9.9 million WW)
8. Hamnet – $880,000 ($4.2 million total, $4.2 million WW)
9. Dhurandhar – $2 million ($2 million total, $10.4 million WW)
10. Predator: Badlands – $1.9 million ($88.3 million total, $177.6 million WW)$