- Five Nights at Freddy’s (review)- $78M
Bad reviews be damned, Five Nights at Freddy’s, based on a nearly decade-old video game about animatronics that spring to life, killed at the box office with $78M. This is despite a day-and-date streaming release on Peacock, reportedly the most-watched in the network’s history. The Emma Tammi-directed, Josh Hutcherson-starring horror has a 26% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences felt otherwise, giving it a whopping 89%. Worldwide the film has already hit $130M, and imagine what this number would be without the streaming component. Even so, that number is the biggest global bow for Blumhouse ever, beating Halloween‘s $91M. It’s also the best opening weekend of the year for a horror movie, besting Scream 6.
2. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour– $14.7M/$149.3M
The Swifties aren’t going anywhere. Taylor Swift’s hit concert film has crossed the $200M mark worldwide.
3. Killers of the Flower Moon– $9M/$40.6M
Scorsese’s Native American crime drama fell 61% in its second weekend, which is pretty big and probably has to do with the lengthy 3-hour runtime. Worldwide, the film has $84M which is a far cry from the $200M+ budget. A strong awards season push followed by an Apple TV+ release could help turn things around.
4. After Death– $5M
5. The Exorcist: Believer– $3.1M/$59.3M
6. PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie– $2.1M/$59.2M
7. Freelance– $2.06M
Not even John Cena’s hefty muscles could lift up Freelance, the action-comedy that pairs him with Alison Brie. We’re coming towards the end of the weekend and it still sits at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is quite a feat. The $2M opening weekend is also low on an embarrassing scale, but then Relativity Media had no confidence in this movie from the beginning. On a personal note, I literally just returned from seeing this, in a theater with a grand total of five folks in it. And let’s just say that my review on RT would not have pulled it into the positive.
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas (re-release)- $2M/$7.8M
9. Saw X– $1.6M/$50.2M
10. The Creator– $1M/$38.8M
