Going into the weekend, projections for the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” sequel weren’t good. The title was projected to land at around $35-40 million, just under half the debut of its predecessor, and that film was impacted by being launched on Peacock simultaneously – not the case here.
Well, Universal and Blumhouse will be sighing with relief as actual grosses for the film indicate the movie is on track for a domestic debut of a very robust $63 million. Still down on the first film, but not so drastically and an excellent result for a PG-13 horror movie in December.
It’s the biggest opening ever for a post-Thanksgiving theatrical release, coming in ahead of “The Last Samurai” with $24.2 million and “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” with $18 million.
It’s also the biggest December horror opening, December Universal opening, and PG-13 horror film in 2025. Overseas, the film also pulled in a further $46 million, bringing up its worldwide debut to $109 million – triple its $36 million production budget.
Next, Disney’s “Zootopia 2” saw a decent 57% drop in its second weekend, pulling in a further $43 million domestically and a stunning $219 million overseas. The film is already up to $220 million domestically and $916 million worldwide – nearly half of that ($430 million) coming from China alone.
“Wicked: For Good” was third with a further $16.7 million domestically – the title dropping a pretty severe 75% in its third weekend, suggesting its theatrical shelf life is nearly done. It currently stands at $296.6 million domestically and $143.2 million overseas for a $440.1 million worldwide haul.
Anime “Jujutsu Kasen: Execution” debuted in fourth with $10.1 million, while Tarantino’s re-release “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” took sixth place with $3.25 million. “Hamnet” saw an expansion which pushed it up into eighth place with $2.3 million in its second weekend. Newcomers “Merrily We Roll Along” and “Fackham Hall” bombed on arrival with $1.23 million and $620,000 respectively.
“Predator: Badlands” also overtook “Alien vs. Predator” to become the highest-grossing film in its franchise, the title reaching $180 million worldwide. The overall domestic box-office also had the biggest weekend ever in the post-Thanksgiving period with a $150 million combined haul.
Source: Deadline
