Blumhouse Productions has been one of the biggest names in horror for several years now, putting out movies like The Invisible Man, The Black Phone, M3GAN, the recent Halloween sequel trilogy, and the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and The Purge franchises, among many others. October 6th saw the theatrical release of their Exorcist sequel The Exorcist: Believer, which is meant to be the first entry in a trilogy… and the poor reception that movie got from movie-goers and critics alike wasn’t exactly what Universal and Peacock were hoping for when they forked over around $400 million for the rights to distribute that trilogy. But Blumhouse’s luck turned around three weeks later. That’s when their video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s (read our review HERE) reached theatres – and that movie has officially become their highest-grossing production!
Blumhouse’s previous record holder was the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Split, which made almost $279 million at the global box office back in 2017. Collider reports and TheNumbers confirms that Five Nights at Freddy’s has left Split in the dust with its haul of over $295 million.
Made on a budget of $20 million, Five Nights at Freddy’s had an $80 million opening weekend, despite the fact that it reached the Peacock streaming service the same day it reached theatres. It also only took the film five days to become Peacock’s most-watched title ever.
Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Matthew Lillard (Scream), Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Game), Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny & Joon), Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy), and Kat Conner Sterling (A Week Away). The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.
Stunt performers Kevin Foster (WandaVision), Jade Kindar-Martin (Interview with the Vampire), and Jess Weiss (Mayfair Witches) play the animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, and Chica.
The video game takes place in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck-E-Cheese, where an animatronic animal band performs kiddy songs by day, and goes on murderous rampages by night. The goal of the game is survive a night locked inside, knowing that a furry death machine might jump out of the dark at any moment.
This adaptation was originally set up at Warner Bros., where Gil Kenan (Monster House) was going to direct the film from a screenplay he was writing with Tyler Burton Smith (the Child’s Play remake). Then the project moved over to Blumhouse, where Chris Columbus (Home Alone) was attached to direct it for several years. But now it has gone into production with Emma Tammi – director of The Wind, Into the Dark: Delivered, and Into the Dark: Blood Moon – at the helm, working from a screenplay she wrote with Seth Cuddeback (Mateo) and video game creator Scott Cawthon. Tragedy Girls writers Tyler MacIntyre and Chris Lee Hill share story credit with Cawthon.
Five Nights at Freddy’s was produced by Blumhouse, in association with Striker Entertainment. Cawthon is a producer alongside Blumhouse founder Jason Blum. Russell Binder is executive producing. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop handled the special effects that help bring the homicidal animatronic animals to life on the screen.
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that the film will be receiving a digital release on November 28th, with a 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD release following on December 12th.
Have you seen Five Nights at Freddy’s? What do you think of it becoming Blumhouse’s highest-grossing film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.