Five Nights At Freddy's is slaying box office records

Five Nights at Freddy's
(Image credit: Universal Studios)

Five Nights at Freddy's is breaking box office records.

The film hit theaters and Peacock on October 27, pulling in $160 million at the global box office against a budget of just $20 million – despite being a streaming hybrid release.

Directed by Emma Tammi from a script by the filmmaker, original video game creator Scott Cawthon, and Seth Cuddleback, the horror flick stars Josh Hutcherson as Mike, who takes a nighttime security guard gig at the defunct Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria. He soon realizes that the animatronics come to life at night and things start to get... dicey.

The cast includes Matthew Lillard, Mary Stuart Masterson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Kat Conner Sterling, David Lind, Lucas Grant, and Theodus Crane.

The immensely popular video game franchise is a point-and-click survival horror in which the player is a security guard working the night shift at Chuck E. Cheese-esque restaurant Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. The terrifying animatronic animals come to life at night, and your goal is to prevent them from murdering you before your shift is over.

The full list of records broken by FNAF, provided by Universal via Variety, are as follows:

Domestic

  • Highest-grossing opening weekend for Blumhouse, surpassing 2018’s Halloween ($76.22 million)
  • 19th Blumhouse film to open in first place at the domestic box office
  • Biggest opening weekend of the year for a horror film, overtaking Scream VI ($44 million)
  • Second-largest debut of all time for a video game adaptation, behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146.3 million)
  • Second-best opening weekend for a day-and-date streaming release, following Disney’s 2021 Marvel adventure Black Widow ($80 million in theaters and $60 million on Disney+)
  • Biggest opening weekend ever for Universal and Peacock’s hybrid releases, beating the slasher sequels, 2021 Halloween Kills ($49 million) and 2022’s Halloween Ends ($40 million)
  • Highest-grossing opening weekend for Halloween weekend release, outperforming 2011’s Puss in Boots ($34 million) 
  • Third-biggest debut for any horror film, trailing 2017’s It ($123 million) and 2019’s It: Chapter Two ($91 million)
  • Best debut ever for PG-13 horror film, besting 2001’s The Mummy Returns ($68 million)

International

  • Second-biggest horror opening of the year after The Nun II ($52.7 million)

Global

  • Biggest horror opening of 2023, ahead of The Nun II ($88.1 million)
  • Highest-grossing Blumhouse global opening of all time, ahead of Halloween ($91.8 million)

Five Nights at Freddy's is in theaters and streaming on Peacock now. For more, check out our list of every easter egg and reference you might have missed.

Lauren Milici
Senior Writer, Tv & Film

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.