Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Tops Thanksgiving Weekend with $63M, While Disney’s Zootopia 2 and Universal’s Wicked: For Good Trail Behind

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 shattered expectations, pulling in $63 million over its first weekend and setting a new record for a post‑Thanksgiving opening.

Box Office Explosion

The sequel opened in 3,412 theaters across the U.S. and Canada and surpassed every projection, earning $63 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates. It became the biggest opening ever after Thanksgiving, a period that usually sees more subdued releases. The film also tops the yearly PG‑13 opening list and sits as the second‑largest horror opening, only behind The Conjuring: Last Rites.

Jim Orr, head of domestic distribution for Universal, said, “There’s been a lot of doom and gloom about the industry overall, but this movie helped drive the industry to the biggest first weekend post‑Thanksgiving ever.”

The original 2023 film opened to $80 million in October and was also available on Peacock. Universal chose an exclusive theatrical run for the sequel, which was produced for just $36 million.

Audience vs. Critics

Critics were largely negative. Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press gave the movie zero stars and called it an “incoherent mess.” Despite the harsh reviews, the movie’s core fan base turned out in large numbers. PostTrak polling data shows 70% of ticket buyers said they would “definitely” recommend the film to friends.

Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Comscore, noted that the teen video gamer audience is sometimes underestimated and that this weekend proves once again that given the right film, they will come out to the movie theater for a communal experience with fellow fans.

Other Top‑Grossing Films

The success of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 pushed Disney’s family‑friendly Zootopia 2 into second place with $43 million in North America, while the film’s global tally reached $915.8 million across 52 territories, including China. That makes Disney the only studio to surpass $5 billion worldwide this year.

Universal’s Wicked: For Good earned $16.8 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total just shy of $297 million. Gkids’ anime Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution landed fourth with an estimated $10.2 million, and Lionsgate’s Now You See Me: Now You Don’t rounded out the top five at $3.5 million, pushing its global total to $210 million.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair added $3.3 million from 1,198 theaters. The film, a four‑hour and 35‑minute epic combining Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, received an A+ CinemaScore from an audience that was 72% male. The studio reported most 70mm and 35mm showings were sold out and is exploring an extended run due to demand for the prints.

In New York’s AMC Lincoln Square, the independent drama Rosemead earned $50,243 from a single screen. Sony Pictures Classics’ Merrily We Roll Along opened just outside the top 10 with $1.2 million from 1,084 screens.

Industry Context

The annual domestic box office for the weekend surpassed $8 billion, a milestone only surpassed once since the pandemic, in 2023 when Barbie topped the year. Before 2020, the figure regularly hit $11 billion.

Dergarabedian said, “It’s not impossible, but every movie is going to have to overperform in some way if we’re going to get to the $9 billion threshold.”

Key Takeaways

• Five Nights at Freddy’s 2’s $63 million opening re‑establishes the potential of theatrical releases.
• Negative critical reception did not deter a strong fan turnout, with 70% recommending the film.
• Disney’s Zootopia 2 remains the only studio to cross $5 billion worldwide this year.

The weekend’s results underscore that genre films can drive significant box‑office returns, even when reviews are poor, and that audience loyalty continues to play a pivotal role in a movie’s commercial success.