Five Nights at Freddy’s Had Peacock’s Biggest Five-Day Debut Ever

Five Nights at Freddy’s just offered a compelling point to the argument that films that concurrently debut on streaming platforms can still have successful box office openings.

As of Oct. 31, the Blumhouse and Universal Pictures project has officially had the biggest five-day debut of any Peacock title, according to a press release from Universal. It didn’t offer any viewership numbers, but did say it dethrones the five-day viewership totals for Halloween Ends and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. 

The movie is based off of a point-and-click survival game of the same name developed by Scott Cawthon in 2014. In addition to creating the film, Cawthon also co-wrote the feature, which takes place in an abandoned theme restaurant that’s home to a crew of animatronic antagonists. When the protagonist, Mike (Josh Hutcherson), takes an overnight security guard position at the property, he’s forced to confront the restaurant’s hidden terrors with the help of a local police officer (Elizabeth Lail).

Simultaneous to the film’s Oct. 27 release on Peacock, Five Nights at Freddy’s also premiered in theaters. The film opened at $132.7 million globally, securing the video game adaptation’s status as the biggest horror film opening of 2023.

$80 million of that sum is from domestic theatergoers alone, tying Five Nights at Freddy’s with Marvel Studio’s Black Widow for the largest-ever opening for a day-and-date release – meaning, a movie that debuts in theaters and on streaming the same day. The film also had the largest Blumhouse opening of all time, surpassing 2018’s Halloween reboot.

In an interview earlier this month Fortune Magazine, Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum claimed that Five Nights at Freddy’s had already earned back more than its production costs from the sale of its streaming and theatrical distribution rights alone. That’s not too shabby considered FNAF had a reported production budget of around $20 million (per ABC News), making it one of the pricier Blumhouse productions.

Five Nights in Theaters and on Streaming

But, to dig a little deeper, the Peacock debut may not have hurt FNAF at the box office too much simply because it’s not the biggest streaming service out there. Since its debut in July 2020, Peacock has reached over 28 million active subscribers, according to an Oct. 26 report released by Comcast.

In comparison, Variety reported that Netflix had over 247.15 million subscribers by the end of September 2023. Disney+, meanwhile, apparently has 146.7 million subscribers as of Q3 of 2023.

Then again, Halloween Ends followed a similar release model; on Oct. 14, the sequel film was made available for viewing both in theaters and on Peacock. According to Deadline, while Halloween Ends has still made a profit relative to the cost of production, the film grossed about $10 million less than expected from its box office debut.

In short, it’s another interesting data point as studios continue to experiment with releasing films in streaming and in theaters, especially following the COVID-19 shutdown. James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, for example, made $26.5 million from theaters on opening weekend — about $3.5 million less than expected — partially due to its same-day release on HBO Max for paid subscribers.

But, Five Nights at Freddy’s proves that, under the right circumstances, the day-and-date model doesn’t necessarily have to eat into the box office total. If that means we can still see movies in theaters AND rewatch them from home promptly after, then we’re game.

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