Because nobody ever went broke betting on low-budget horror in October—unless, of course, they decided to shell out $400 million for the rights to that low-budget horror, cough, The Exorcist: Believer, cough—Universal and Blumhouse’s Five Nights At Freddy’spopular game franchise), the film is headed toward a hefty $78 million opening weekend—reportedly the biggest Halloween weekend opening, ever, as well as the biggest for a Blumhouse movie. (And the third biggest for a horror movie, period, trailing only behind the two recent It movies, according to THR.)
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That’s obviously good news for the studios, given, well, Exorcist: Believer, which did not kick October off with an especially great start for the Universal/Blumhouse team-up. (Believer didn’t do god-awful, actually, tapping out at $112 million—except when you factor in that massive payout for the rights to the franchise.) Interestingly, Five Nights is scoring big money despite launching simultaneously on streaming, landing on the paid tier of Peacock at the same time it hits theaters, apparently drawing in audiences that want to experience PG-13-style horror as a group.
The film is based off of the video game series, created by Scott Cawthon, who co-wrote the script, and executive produces the movie. The film was directed by Emma Tammi, who’s talked a bit this week about the decision to keep the movie tightly to its PG-13 rating—which might help explain how Freddy’s pulled an “A” score from audience-polling service CinemaScore, which normally pulls back hard from horror movies.