Animatronics are making magic at the year-end box office, between sequels Five Nights at Freddy’s and Zootopia 2.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, opening two months after Black Phone 2 put horror maestro Jason Blum back in the driver’s seat, topped the domestic box office chart with a sizeable $63 million from 3,412 theaters to score the top opening ever for the post-Thanksgiving frame, among other milestones.
Overseas, the Universal and Blumhouse movie took an equally stellar $46.1 million from 76 markets for an early global total of $109 million against a net production of $36 million before marketing.
Critics snubbed the profit monster — Freddy 2‘s current ranking on Rotten Tomatoes is 13 percent, compared to 33 percent for the first — but audiences don’t seem to give a hoot. Freddy’s 2 earned a B CinemaScore (not bad for a horror title) and strong exits. And while it won’t match the $80 million domestic launch of the first Five Nights at Freddy‘s, it’s hard to compare the two because of markedly different play patterns.
Other milestones domestically: the sequel looks to score the second-best horror opening of the year so far domestically behind Atomic Monster’s The Conjuring Last Rites (Atomic Monster and Blumhouse merged in 2024); the year’s highest opening so far for a PG-13 horror pic ahead of Predator: Badlands; and the highest December horror opening ever at the domestic box office ahead of Scream 2. Overseas, it is likewise the second-best opening of the year.
In 2023, Blumhouse’s box-office horror phenomenon Five Nights at Freddy’s, based on the blockbuster game series by Scott Cawthon about the oversized animatronic animal figures that inhabit Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, became the highest-grossing horror film of the year in earning north of $300 million globally. Josh Hutcherson returns to lead the cast, with Emma Tammi also returning to direct.
The sequel topped Friday’s chart with a whopping $30.1 million, including previews.
Walt Disney Animation’s record-smashing Thanksgiving tentpole Zootopia 2 easily came in second in its third weekend with $43 million from 4,000 sites, bringing its domestic total to $220.6 million. Overseas, the sequel took in another $219 million for an astonishing foreign tally of $695.3 million as it speeds toward the $1 billion mark at the global box office. Only one other Hollywood pic has achieved that feat so far this year, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch.
Zootopia continues to make history in China, where it has now earned $430 million to rank as the second-biggest Hollywood title of all time behind Avengers: Endgame, unadjusted. And it debuted to $12.3 million in Japan, the second-biggest Hollywood launch of all time behind fellow Disney animated blockbuster Frozen 2. Other milestones: it is already the biggest international grosser of the year among Western releases, helping to push Disney past the $5 billion mark in worldwide ticket sales for the second year in a row, and only the third time since 2018 (no other studio has ever cleared the $5 billion mark).
Universal and Jon M. Chu‘s Wicked: For Good fell a relatively steep 73 percent in its third weekend to an estimated $16.8 million from 3,985 locations for an impressive domestic tally of $297 million through Sunday. Still, that’s behind the $322.1 million earned by the first Wicked at the same point in time (the first installment, opening over Thanksgiving 2024, declined 55 percent in its third outing). Similar to Zootopia, Wicked 2 shattered numerous records during its opening weekend before Thanksgiving. Execs both inside and outside of Universal believe Wicked: For Good still has plenty of time to make up ground.
Internationally, Wicked: For Good grossed $13 million from 80 markets for a foreign total of $143.2 million and $440.1 million globally.
GKIDS’ new anime pic Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution came in fourth in North America with an estimated $10 million from 1,823 cinemas.
Two Lionsgate titles came in fourth and fifth — Now You See Me: Now You Don’t and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.
Now You See Me celebrated crossing $200 million in worldwide ticket sales after earning another $3.5 million domestically from 2,626 theaters and $9 million overseas from 85 markets. The pic’s domestic tally through Sunday is $55.3 million and north of $154.3 million overseas for an estimated global total of nearly $210 million.
The Whole Bloody Affair took in an impressive $3.25 million from 1,198 sites. The project unites 2003’s Kill Bill: Vol 1 and 2004’s Kill Bill: Vol 2 for the first time and includes a new and never-before-seen anime sequence. The film’s run time is well over four hours — or 281 minutes — but that, thankfully, includes a 15-minute intermission.
At the specialty box office, Focus Features’ awards contender Hamnet came in eighth place as it expanded into 744 theaters, grossing an estimated $2.3 million for an early domestic cume of $4.2 million. The plan is to go slowly in terms of rolling out the drama in order to take advantage of various nominations.
Dec. 7, 7:56 a.m.: Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published Dec. 6 at 9:39 a.m.
Credit: Source link