‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ Slays ‘Halloween Kills,’ Becomes NBCU’s Best Ever Simultaneous Peacock and Theatrical Release

At least in terms of horror movies, NBCUniversal is proving that it doesn't have to choose between linear and streaming

Universal and Blumhouse’s video game-based horror-thriller Five Nights at Freddy’s landed an estimated $80 million at North American theaters over the weekend, with $130 million in global sales.

Those ticket sales came despite the film landing simultaneously on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service. It’s the studio’s best-ever simultaneous streaming release yet, beating out Halloween Kills, which premiered to $49 million at the domestic box office in 2021, and Halloween Ends ($40 million in 2022). And unlike Five Nights at Freddy’s, those slasher movies were part of a time-tested film franchise.

In fact, Freddy had the bet “day-and-date” release of all streaming time, tying Disney’s debut of Black Widow in the summer of 2021, which also generated $80 million in first-weekend North American box office receipts.

Five Nights at Freddy’s now stands as the biggest horror premiere of the year, surpassing Scream VI ($44.4 million). It’s also Blumhouse’s biggest global debut of all time, overtaking 2018’s Halloween ($91.8 million worldwide).

Directed by Emma Tammi and based on the popular video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Josh Hutcherson as a nighttime security guard at an abandoned children’s entertainment establishment, whose animatronics have a penchant for murder. It got an awful 25% Rotten Tomatoes score, but audiences rated the movie as highly as 89% on the same site.

“It’s so fun when it works. Thank you all so much for being patient with us on [‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’]. We wanted to get it just right for the fans,” Blumhouse founder Jason Blum wrote on Twitter. “And it’s official. Biggest Blumhouse opening movie of all time.”