Five Nights at Freddy’s success at the Box Office shows family fun can be scary

Five Nights at Freddy’s is an adaption from a popular video game franchise, the IP also boasts plenty of action figures and clothing merch. Fans of the franchise showed out for the opening weekend of the film, as it raked in $80 million dollars in it’s opening weekend and tied Marvel’s Black Widow for the largest release in theaters and streaming simultaneously. Moreover, Five Nights at Freddy’s became the second highest-grossing first weekend for a film based on a video game behind only The Super Mario Bros Movie.

Impressively, the flick had a budget of $20 million, therefore already securing $60 million in gains, which bodes well for fans hoping for following films. As mentioned earlier, the film is also streaming on NBC’s Peacock for premium subscribers, if you need a nightcap for Halloween to enjoy with the big kids once the littles are in bed, this is it.

Director Emma Tammi Defends PG-13 Rating

For parents concerned about their kids wanting to watch the film because they are familiar with the franchise and older fans who are disappointed the film is not intense enough to be slapped with an R-rating, this is director Emma Tammi’s response:

"“We knew that some of the fan base would want an R-rated version of this film,” the director told Forbes. “On the one level, we wanted to be inclusive of the younger audiences and knew we were going to hit the PG-13 rating, but for the audience that also wanted that level of violence, if you will, or at least insinuation of violence, we really wanted to still include elements that felt dark.”"

What is Five Nights at Freddy’s about?

The film follows Mike (Josh Hutcherson) who is a security guard at a mall, until he is fired. He is caring for his younger sister Abby, while navigating a traumatic event from his childhood. When their aunt threatens to fight Mike for custody of Abby, that is when he is forced to take on a new security job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a spooky abandoned restaurant/entertainment center, from then on the rollercoaster plot takes shape. The film does a good job of telling a deeper story, without straying too far from the real stars of the movie which are the monstrous animatronics, Foxy, Bonnie, Chica, and of course Freddy.

Have you seen the movie in theaters, or streamed it on Peacock? Let us know what you thought of the flick in the comments below.