Weekend Box Office: Five Nights at Freddy’s overcomes horrific 76% decline to reclaim first

Last Updated on November 21, 2023

In what is one of the lowest grossing weekends of the year, Five Nights at Freddy’s was able to overcome a truly horrific second weekend decline of 76% to remain atop the box office with an estimated $19.4 million. As we said in our Thursday predictions, no matter the decline this movie saw, anything it made was just the cherry on top of the massive $80 million sundae it had last week.

It is evident this film was made for the fans and the fans propelled it to that record breaking opening, but with no real appeal to general audiences, we are seeing the type of decline a film like this can have. Of course it really doesn’t matter when your film costs just $20 million to make and has already surpassed $140 million worldwide in just one week. This isn’t a Flash or Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning or Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny where a massive second week decline means the film won’t recoup its $200-$300 million budgets. Quite frankly: studios should look at the Blumhouse model and start to incorporate some of that into their own films.

Remaining in second place for another week is Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour with an additional $13.5 million added to her $165 million running domestic total. The film continues to pull in strong numbers from the “swifties” who are jumping up and singing in the aisles. The film still has about $30-$40 million to go before it can top Michael Jackson’s This is It to lay claim as the highest grossing concert film of all time (at the worldwide box office) but if it can keep up these small week to week drops, it should be able to pass the king of pop eventually.

Coming in third place is Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon which has seen small week to week drops, this week only losing 25% of its audience for a $7 million finish and a running domestic total of $52.3 million. Not too shabby for a three and a half hour western drama. 

This week saw the release of a few smaller scale new releases with the Sofia Coppola directed Priscilla coming out ahead of the pack with a reported $5 million. While critics may be big fans of the film, in particular Cailee Spaeny’s titular performance, there was one person who was not a fan: Lisa Marie Presley reportedly called the script “vengeful” and “contemptuous” before she tragically passed away earlier this year. 

Pulling in a surprising $2.7 million this weekend is the Spanish language film Radical starring Eugenio Derbez who you may recognize from the Oscar Best Picture winning Coda or the Adam Sandler starring Jack & Jill. Fans of the actor may remember he helped propel 2013’s Instructions Not Included to become the highest grossing Spanish language film ever at the domestic box office and it appears word of mouth may propel this new one to some strong numbers as well. 

Meg Ryan’s highly anticipated return to the world of romantic comedies is off to a rocky start as her directorial effort What Happens Later only managed $1.56 million for a 9th place finish. While that number isn’t very good, this one is definitely making its theatrical push in an attempt to put out solid press for when the film eventually hits home video/ streaming in December.

Another movie that got a low-key release this weekend was the Daisy Ridley drama, The Marsh King’s Daughter, which got middling reviews (read ours here) and earned a brutal $805 per screen average for a sub-million dollar launch and a first week finish outside the top ten. While holdover titles such as The Exorcist: Believer, After Death, Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie and the still 0% rated Freelance starring John Cena rounded out the top ten.

Next week sees the release of the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe title: The Marvels and the well reviewed Nicolas Cage film Dream Scenario (you can check out Chris Bumbray’s 7/10 review from TIFF here), so hopefully we will see a bounce back at theaters. Although, if early tracking for Marvels is any indication, it won’t be by much.

What do you make of Five Nights at Freddy’s massive second week drop? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to take our weekly poll where this week, in the wake of the tragic passing of Matthew Perry, we ask: What is your favorite Matthew Perry movie?