The film adaptation of the video game Five Night’s At Freddy’s broke box office records during its opening weekend in theaters, and its respect for the game’s fandom played a big role in its success. Two creators who helped popularize FNAF — game theorist Matthew ‘MatPat‘ Patrick and Let’s Play star CoryxKenshin — had cameos in the film adaptation.
The FNAF film was produced by the horror masters at Blumhouse, with Hunger Games star Josh Hutcherson in the leading role. During its opening weekend, the adaptation reeled in $78 million at the North American box office and $130 million globally. According to Variety, those numbers established several records: Five Nights At Freddy’s had the biggest domestic debut of any movie released during Halloween weekend, and it gave Blumhouse its most lucrative international opening of all time.
“It’s so fun when it works,” Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum wrote on X. “Thank you all so much for being patient with us on Five Nights at Freddy’s. We wanted to get it just right for the fans. That’s all we were focused on.”
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
FNAF fans turned the game into a viral YouTube hit shortly after its initial release in 2014. CoryxKenshin (real name Cory Devante Williams) helped fuel that frenzy by playing various FNAF games on his channel, while MatPat dove into the franchise’s deep lore on his Game Theorists channel. In the film adaptation, CoryxKenshin plays a cab driver who gives one of the protagonists a ride, while MatPat shows up as a waiter and says his signature line: “It’s just a theory.”
Five other creators who are known for playing FNAF — Bazamalam, 8-bit Ryan, Razzbowski, Dawko, and FusionZGamer — are referenced in the film adaptation. They show up as past Employees of the Month at the franchise’s titular setting, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.
Those easter eggs appeased the FNAF diehards who have kept the franchise in the public eye by reading untold books of lore and playing more than a dozen sequels and spinoffs. One group that’s not convinced about the FNAF movie, however, is the movie critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, only 26% of reviewers gave the film a positive score. A corresponding audience score of 88% backs up Charlie ‘Moist Cr1TiKaL‘ White’s assessment of the movie: It’s a project for FNAF devotees, not film buffs.
Reviewer Jeremy Jahns also noticed the tension between the film’s horror milieu and its relatively kid-friendly aesthetic. The latter quality helped FNAF become a YouTube hit, and the adaptation carried a PG-13 rating as a result. Would it have had more thrills if it were rated R?
Jahns thinks so, and he contends that some phenomena are best left on the internet. “Hearing YouTubers break down the lore and the story of Five Nights At Freddy’s is infinitely more interesting that the film adaptation of Five Nights At Freddy’s,” he said.
