'Five Nights At Freddy's' Movie Shakes Off The Competition, Tops Taylor Swift At Box Office

A movie adaptation of a popular video game dethroned Taylor Swift from the top of the box office.

Here's a look at how much money "Five Nights at Freddy's" made and how the Taylor Swift concert film continued to climb the yearly rankings.

What Happened: The 2023 box office is currently being led by the adaptations of a popular children's toy and video game series with "Barbie" and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

Another video game adaptation posted an impressive opening weekend and could climb up the yearly chart.

"Five Nights at Freddy's," which was based on a video game franchise first released in 2014, topped the domestic box office for the weekend with $78 million. The movie also grossed $52.6 million in international markets for a total opening weekend of $130.6 million, as reported by Variety.  

The movie was released by Universal, a unit of Comcast Corporation CMCSA, and simultaneously released on the Peacock streaming service.

"Five Nights at Freddy's" was the second-best simultaneously released theatrical and streaming movie ever, trailing only "Black Widow," which grossed $80 million domestically from its opening weekend and $60 million from its release on Disney+.

Results for "Five Nights at Freddy's" beat expectations with most estimates coming in the $50 million range.

With the $78 million opening, "Five Nights at Freddy's" was the biggest horror genre debut of 2023. The opening was also the second-best domestic total for a video game adaptation, trailing only "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

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Why It's Important: With its $78 million opening, "Five Nights at Freddy's" also did something not many can do in 2023: beat Taylor Swift.

After two weeks atop the domestic box office chart, "The Eras Tour" concert film came in second place for the weekend with $14.7 million.

The concert film, which had a distribution deal with AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC, now grossed $149.3 million domestically and $203 million globally.

The Taylor Swift concert film, now ranked as the 16^th biggest movie domestically for 2023, came after only three weeks and the movie was only in theaters Thursday through Sunday.

"The Eras Tour" was already the biggest concert film ever domestically and on its way to passing the biggest worldwide concert film of all time, "This Is It." The Michael Jackson concert film grossed $261.2 million worldwide.

Ranking third for the weekend was "Killers of the Flower Moon," a big-budget film from Apple Inc AAPL. The movie saw a 61% decline from its opening weekend and grossed $9 million domestically in its second weekend.

The film grossed $40.6 million domestically and $88 million globally since being released, which came as the movie had an estimated $200 million budget.

The success of "The Eras Tour" and "Five Nights at Freddy's" could help movie theater companies that had less blockbuster movies than normal and are still feeling the impact after the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the actors' strike still ongoing, several 2024 movies were moved to the 2025 calendar and next year's movie slate could be weaker than normal.

The success of "Five Nights at Freddy's" and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" could see more media companies circling popular video games for big-screen and small-screen adaptations.

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Photo: Courtesy NBCUniversal