FNaF movie: Halloween box office records broken by Fazbear gang

Fans have been glued to their seats during the Five Nights at Freddy's movie, even if critics weren't

The Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF) movie ruled the UK Halloween weekend box office despite poor critic reviews.

The film made £5.4m in the UK since its release last Wednesday, according to the Film Distributor's Association.

That's more than the week's other top films - Trolls Band Together, Killers of the Flower Moon and Taylor Swift's Eras Tour movie - combined.

FNaF also made $78m (£64.3m) in North America, and $130m (£107m) globally, according to Variety.

The videogame adaptation followed the success of the Super Mario Bros Movie earlier this year, which became a hit despite mostly low review scores.

Like the game, FNaF follows Mike Schmidt, played by Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson, a security guard who works at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear's Pizza restaurant.

Mike soon learns that his night job also comes with a side order of murderous animatronics that stalk the diner at night.

For many reviewers the life-like creatures were the highlight of the movie, which is rated 15 in the UK and PG-13 in the US, but the plot, pacing and scares failed to impress many.

But that didn't deter fans who'd been waiting for the film - an adaptation of the 2014 videogame - for almost 10 years.

According to early reviews, Freddy's animatronics are not as scary as they look

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, FNaF has a critic score of 26%, but an audience score of 88%, with many fans describing the film as "amazing" and "worth the wait".

It's been a similar story on TikTok, where lots of videos praising the film have been posted over the weekend, although some were disappointed with its lack of gore.

FNaF's makers have been "focused on" pleasing fans of the franchise, as producer Jason Blum said when he reacted to the box office performance.

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Jason, boss of horror movie studio Blumhouse, said FNaF had given the company its most successful opening weekend.

Writing on X, he also congratulated director Emma Tammi for "the biggest opening weekend for a horror film directed by a woman".

And although she's no longer number one at the box office it was still a good weekend for Taylor Swift.

Her Eras Tour movie made another $14.7m, meaning it's taken more than $200m around the world.

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