Universal/Blumhouse’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is lighting up what is usually a slow post-Thanksgiving box office weekend with a $29.8 million opening day from 3,412 locations, putting the video game horror sequel on pace for a $56.5 million opening weekend.
While well short of the Blumhouse record $80 million opening that the first “Five Nights” earned in October 2023, it is still more than enough to make this sequel another box office success and beats pre-release projections of a $40 million start. That’s thanks to strong walk-up sales from Gen Z fans of Scott Cawthon’s horror games, who made up the overwhelming majority of the audience for the first film.
The one bad piece of news is that “FNAF2” isn’t as well received with those fans as its predecessor. While the first “Five Nights” earned an A- on CinemaScore, particularly high for any horror film, the sequel has earned a B that is more in line with what the genre gets from the audience polling system. “Five Nights” isn’t expected to make much beyond this weekend — hence why it was set for the usually barren post-Thanksgiving slot –but we will see if the somewhat weaker reception among fans affects turnout on Saturday and Sunday.
More to come…
