Weekend Box Office Recap: Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Opens Below the First Film, While Zootopia 2 Nears $1 Billion

Post-holiday weekends are rarely generous to new releases, but this year audiences decided otherwise: Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 stormed into North American theaters with a $63 million debut — far above early projections of $35–40 million. Yes, it trails the surprise $80 million launch of the first film, but that movie released simultaneously in theaters and on Peacock before going on to gross nearly $300 million on a $20 million budget.

The sequel also turned out to be a remarkably efficient investment — Universal spent just $36 million, and early results already point to a massive profit. For Blumhouse and Atomic Monster, the release marks a much-needed rebound: after the stumbles of M3GAN 2.0, Wolfman, and Drop, two consecutive wins — The Black Phone 2 in the fall and now FNaF 2 — signal a major shift in momentum.

Emma Tammi’s film brings back the core cast — Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, and Piper Rubio — and once again plunges the characters into a nighttime battle against murderous animatronics. Overseas, the sequel opened with an additional $46 million across 76 territories — from Mexico and the U.K. to Germany and Australia — bringing its global total to $109 million.

Holding second place is Zootopia 2, which dominated the holiday weekend and added another $43 million. The sequel has now earned $220.5 million domestically and a staggering $915.8 million worldwide — the billion-dollar milestone is all but guaranteed.

Third place once again goes to another strong sequel — Wicked: Part 2. In its third weekend, the musical collected $15.6 million, inching closer to $300 million domestic.

Anime feature Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution, a compilation of episodes from the series, debuted with $10.2 million, taking fourth place. Rounding out the top five is Lionsgate’s Now You See Me 3 with $3.5 million for a $55.3 million total.

Quentin Tarantino’s four-hour director’s cut Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair also made a splash, earning $3.2 million amid renewed discussion following his controversial remarks about Paul Dano and Five Nights at Freddy’s star Matthew Lillard.

Despite several major hits, theaters endured a difficult autumn: a wave of box-office disappointments rattled the market, and the industry now looks toward a powerful December — from Wicked and Zootopia 2 to the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash. Revenue is currently only 1% higher than last year, falling short of analysts’ expectations.

Complicating the outlook even further is the news that Netflix is officially acquiring Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion. The deal raises new questions about the future of theatrical distribution and Hollywood as a whole, especially with franchises like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings now under one roof. The internet — and commentators — remain deeply divided.