Since 2014, the popular horror survival game Five Nights at Freddy’s has taken the internet by storm, popping in and out of relevancy as the franchise continues. During the pandemic, the games saw yet another meteoric rise in popularity with the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach. With the newest instalment reinventing the way you play, and everyone being stuck inside, this led to many folks diving deep into the lore of the franchise and learning about the grizzly murders that happened beyond those pizzeria doors.
Now, the long-in-development film is set to hit theaters later this year, and it seems those behind the picture may have made a fatal error in the release strategy of the film. The turnaround time on this project was quite quick, as it began filming in New Orleans in February of 2023, wrapping two months later in April. A trailer was released by mid-May, with the film now set for an October 27th, 2023, release.
Now here’s the bad news… the film will be receiving a day-and-date release in theaters and streaming exclusively on Peacock, with the studio believing that to be the best way to get this movie in front of as many people as possible. That decision could kill the film’s box office potential.
The Hype Is Real
On its own, Five Nights at Freddy’s is an immensely popular franchise, with a lively and rambunctious fandom. Much of the success of this series can be traced back to YouTube, specifically YouTubers like Markiplier and GameTheory. Markiplier is known for producing gameplay of the series and going viral for his reactions, while GameTheory has produced video after video, piecing together the lore of the game series, racking up millions and millions of views on every single video regarding the franchise. That’s even without the creator directly confirming, or even acknowledging, if any of it is actually true. Still, it exists, and fans absolutely eat it up.
Now, here is the real evidence… the reaction to what has been officially released from the upcoming film has been nothing short of positive. The first trailer received high praise for its incredibly accurate recreation of the pizzeria— and more importantly, the animatronics. It’s not super easy to break the internet, as we’ve seen it all, but when Jason Blum starts teasing the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie? That’s when things get real.
The night of the teaser trailer’s release, Blum started a countdown with posters for the film. With the main one being seen by over 14 million people on his personal account alone, the rest of the individual animatronic posters brought in nearly 6 million views together. Now, where things start to really get impressive is with the teaser trailer. Twitter user JonnyBlox reported that the trailer for the film received nearly 40 million views across multiple social media accounts in just 12 hours.
The biggest reason alone is just the name itself. Five Nights at Freddy’s is probably one of the most popular games of all time. The series has inspired numerous other games of the same nature and has spawned a vibrant community of fans. You can even argue that this movie falls into a very rare category similar to that of Cocaine Bear, and even Barbie, where it’s just something people are gonna have to see to believe. The notoriety of the name alone could sell out theatres around the world. It’s just a notable brand that many consumers are familiar with, and a bulk of the movie-going audience today may have even grown up with the franchise.
Blum’s Bloody Budget
Here’s the upside: It’s a horror movie, and most horror movies are cheap as hell. Five Nights at Freddy’s reportedly has a budget of around $36M, which would make it one of the most expensive Blumhouse horror films to date. This movie really does not need to make as much money as most do these days, and could definitely do well even with the dual release. The other upside is that this film has a very good release date, finding itself set just a few days before the spookiest day of the year on October 27th, 2023.
Five Nights at Freddy’s is set to hit theaters and stream on Peacock on October 27, 2023, and will star Joshua Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard as Mike Schmidt and William Afton. The film will likely follow the events of the first game, with a little bit of background from its sequels sprinkled throughout, to give a bit of background on just how security guard Mike Schmidt found himself in such a terrifying situation.
Five Nights At Freddy‘s releases on Peacock and in theaters on October 27. Check out the teaser trailer below!: