'Five Nights at Freddy's' Leads Slow Box Office Weekend Amid 'Dune: Part Two' Delay

Movie

Without the 'Dune' sequel that was pushed back from its November 3 release date due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, the North American box office has one of its slowest weekends of the year.

Nov 6, 2023

AceShowbiz - Movie ticket sales slumped to another low amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. "Five Nights at Freddy's" leads the slow box office weekend in North America on its second weekend despite a brutal 76% drop.

The supernatural horror film secures the top spot for the second time in a row with additional $19.4 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday, November 5. The hefty drop was not unexpected as the movie is also streaming on Peacock.

" 'Five Nights at Freddy's' is crashing in its second weekend of simultaneous streaming," says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. "The two viewing options compete with each other. An exclusive theatrical run generates the greatest total box office and then elevates the film and builds anticipation of the streaming premiere that follows it."

Universal and Blumhouse's spooky video game adaptation, however, is still strong in international markets. With a total of $113.6 million domestically and $103.5 million overseas, it has grossed a total of $217.1 million worldwide against a reported $20 million production budget.

Editors' Pick

Domestic box office has one of its slowest weekends of the year without "Dune: Part Two" in the line-up. The follow-up to the 2021 epic sci-fi film was supposed to open theatrically on November 3 but it was pushed back to March 2024 without other major blockbuster taking over the spot.

"It's hard to reverse engineer, but 'Dune 2' would have certainly been the No. 1 movie and it would have been a bigger overall weekend," says Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "The strikes have had a profound impact on this marketplace. But this left a lot of opportunity for films like 'Priscilla', 'The Holdovers' and 'Radical' to get more of a spotlight."

With the absence of the "Dune" sequel, "Priscilla" enters the top 10 at No. 4 on its first weekend of nationwide release. Sofia Coppola's award contender added an estimated $5.1 million after A24 expanded it to 1,259 theaters.

Meanwhile, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" and Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" still hold on to the second and third place with approximately $13.5 million and $7 million respectively. Mexican comedy-drama film and Sundance's favorite "Radical" rounds out the top five with an estimated $2.7 million.

Top 10 of North American Box Office (Nov. 3-5, 2023):