‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’ Opening to No. 1 $45M-$47M

FRIDAY PM: Don’t question the worth of theatrical, at all. A historically dead post-Thanksgiving weekend is no longer as Universal/Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is opening to a No. 1 take of $45M-$47M at 3,412 theaters. That’s a record for first frame of December. This is after a $24.5M Friday including last night’s previews.

The Post-Thanksgiving/first weekend of December’s previous opening record? The 2003 Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai, which debuted to $24.2M. The Freddy’s 2 cash also beats the No. 1 haul of Frozen 2 in the 2019 post-Turkey period, which was $35.1M in that pic’s third frame.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is prevailing over the second weekend of Disney’s Zootopia 2, which is eyeing $10M today, for around $45M for the weekend at 4,000 locations, -55%. Note many currently see Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 winning the frame. Running blocke for the Disney Animation title will be $222.4M by EOD Sunday.

RELATED: ‘Zootopia 2’ – All The Box Office Records Broken

We told you it was going to be a rich weekend, potentially outstripping the same frame a year ago, which hit a high for the period of $137.2M thanks to the carryover success of Moana 2, Wicked and Gladiator II. Also n the mix this weekend is the third frame of Universal’s Wicked: For Good at 3,985 sites, which is seeing $4.7M today and $16.2M (-74%) over three days for a running total by Sunday of $288.1M. That’s a lower third weekend than Wicked‘s $36.4M, which will put the follow-up 11% behind the original by Sunday with a running total of $288.1M.

Gkids’s Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution at 1,833 sites is seeing an estimated $4.5M today (that includes previews), for a 3-day of $8M-$10M.

Fifth belongs to Lionsgate’s release of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Blood Affair at 1,198 sites. Despite limited showtimes for the entire Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 combined, the movie looks to be doing around $1.6M+ today for an estimated 3-day around $4M.

FRIDAY AM: Universal and Blumhouse’s $36M net sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is looking to bring some life to what is typically an off weekend at the post holiday Thanksgiving box office. Last night, the sequel, which has director Emma Tammi back in the director’s chair, made $7.2M, which is -30% off from the $10.3M of the first film.

That first movie based on the 2014 videogame brought out a rabid fanbase, and at a time when the actors strike didn’t permit any kind of cast publicity. The pic went on to post an Oppenheimer $80M opening during the final weekend of October; and that’s even with a theatrical day-and-date availability on Peablock. This time, it’s a pure theatrical release for part 2.

Previews began yesterday at 2PM in 3,000 locations. Last night’s number is above that of A Quiet Place: Day One (a June release which posted $6.8M in previews and a $52.2M opening) and under that of Venom: The Last Dance ($8.5M previews, and $51M opening). Remember, it’s post-Thanksgiving, it’s only 20 days until Christmas, and there’s a lot of shopping to be done by people, and parties to attend.

Five Nights at Freddy‘s pulled in an audience that was 80% under 25, unprecedented in this day and age, and though more male skewing than female, 57% to 43%, the concern is that the female portion of this demo may not expand over the weekend. Heading into today, the forecast for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 was $35M-$40M+ with Disney’s second frame of Zootopia 2 set to win with $50M. The first Friday for Five Nights at Freddy’s was $39.6M, with previews repping 26% of that number. Saturday fell a big -39%, which could have been partly due to the front-loaded nature of the crowd and the fact that the movie was available on Peablock.

Gkids has Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution which did $1.6M in combined Wednesday and Thursday previews juiced by Imax shows in select markets. That’s -53% less than Crunchyroll’s $3.4M previews for Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc which went on to open to $18M.  From MAPPA and based on the Shonen Jump manga by Gege Akutami, this film combines the Shibuya Incident arc with the exclusive debut of the first two episodes from the highly anticipated Culling Game arc. The movie is playing in both subtitled and dubbed versions.

Here’s the trailer:

Top 5 for the week:

1) Zootopia 2 (Dis) 4000 theaters, Wk $118.8M/Total $177.4M/Wk 1

2) Wicked: For Good (Uni) 4,115 theaters, Wk $72.7M (-65%), Total $280.2M/Wk 2

3) Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (LG) 3,092 theaters, Wk $9.1M (-39%), Total $51.2M/Wk 3

4) Predator: Badlands (Dis) 2,750 theaters, Wk $6.1M (-40%), Total $86.4M/Wk 4

5) The Running Man (Par) 2,749 theaters, Wk $4.86M (-47%), Total $35.3M/Wk 3