At least in terms of horror movies, NBCUniversal is proving that it doesn't have to choose between linear and streaming

Universal and Blumhouse’s video game-based horror-thriller Five Nights at Freddy’s landed an estimated $80 million at North American theaters over the weekend, with $130 million in global sales.

Those ticket sales came despite the film landing simultaneously on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service. It’s the studio’s best-ever simultaneous streaming release yet, beating out Halloween Kills, which premiered to $49 million at the domestic box office in 2021, and Halloween Ends ($40 million in 2022). And unlike Five Nights at Freddy’s, those slasher movies were part of a time-tested film franchise.

In fact, Freddy had the bet “day-and-date” release of all streaming time, tying Disney’s debut of Black Widow in the summer of 2021, which also generated $80 million in first-weekend North American box office receipts. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s now stands as the biggest horror premiere of the year, surpassing Scream VI ($44.4 million). It’s also Blumhouse’s biggest global debut of all time, overtaking 2018’s Halloween ($91.8 million worldwide).

Directed by Emma Tammi and based on the popular video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Josh Hutcherson as a nighttime security guard at an abandoned children’s entertainment establishment, whose animatronics have a penchant for murder. It got an awful 25% Rotten Tomatoes score, but audiences rated the movie as highly as 89% on the same site.

“It’s so fun when it works. 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,” Blumhouse founder Jason Blum wrote on Twitter. “And it’s official. Biggest Blumhouse opening movie of all time.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s, a movie based on a frightful video game, premieres on Peacock October 27. The film is in theaters as well. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria, a formerly hot Chuck E. Cheese-style hangout that has since closed. While spending his first night on the job, he encounters some animatronic interlopers with a score to settle. 

Josh Hutcherson stars, along with Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Kat Conner Sterling, Mary Stuart Masterson and Matthew Lillard. 

Emma Tammi directs. She wrote the screenplay with Scott Cawthon and Seth Cuddeback. Cawthon created the video game. 

Blumhouse, producer of M3gan, The Black Phone and other horror movies, produces Five Nights. Jason Blum and Cawthon produce. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop created the movie’s animatronic characters.  

Reviews are mostly unkind. A review in Variety called the movie “listless and repetitive.” 

It continues, “Despite being shepherded by savvy low-budget horror producer Jason Blum, this is a rather empty and unexciting effort at attracting horror fans during Halloween season.”

The Guardian called the film “maddeningly dull.”

It reads, “There are five nights to be survived at cursed old pizza spot Freddy Fazbear’s yet it feels like an awful lot more in this surprisingly flat attempt to turn a hit video game into a hit movie. At a flabby, sign-of-the-times 110 minutes, there’s far too much of so many things — dream sequences, exposition, first-act buildup — and far too little of what one would naturally expect from something as surface-level silly as this — fun.”

The Daily Beast, for its part, said the movie “isn’t worth a single evening.”

Quietly, one of the biggest box-office success stories last weekend was a continuation of an almost 19-year-old, 10-film-long horror franchise.

Saw X, which sees series antagonist Jigsaw (played by Tobin Bell) travel to Mexico for a risky medical procedure, earned $18.3 million in North American ticket sales. That's not terribly impressive on paper, but coupled with its $11.3 million in international receipts, Saw X performed well enough to recoup its widely reported $13 million production budget, along with its prints and advertising cost, in its first weekend, while landing in the second-to-top spot at this weekend's domestic box office.

Revenue from subsequent TVOD, SVOD and FAST windows will further incentivize studio distributor Lionsgate to narratively ensure tormenter Jigsaw’s survival from his cancer scare, and commission Australian filmmakers Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannell to shoot Saw XI.

Indeed, as we're shown every October in an era when the domestic box office remains in steep secular decline, the horror genre is as enduring as Jigsaw.  

The annual theatrical “screamfest” will continue this coming weekend with the premiere of Exorcist: Believer, the first Exorcist film made by Universal Pictures and prolific and acclaimed horror producer Jason Blum following a $400 million deal for rights to shoot three new series installments. 

With Blum calling it the riskiest move of his career, the buzz entering Exorcist: Believer's first weekend isn't great, with Rotten Tomatoes aggregating the film at 22%, so who knows if the risky gambit will pay off for Universal and parent company Comcast. 

But even outside the pre-Halloween release window, horror franchises have continue to deliver predictably solid performances at the domestic box office without the need of movie-critic sanctioning. 

Consider that Warner Bros.’s The Nun II just grossed $233.6 million worldwide globally in September, while leading the domestic box office for three consecutive weekends, with an aggregated reviews score of 52%.

In July, the latest installment of yet another Blumhouse horror franchise Insidious — which was also originally created by Saw impressario Whannell — also led the weekend domestic box office. Insidious: The Red Door went on to gross $188.6 million globally with critics aggregation of only 38%. 

And in March, the premiere of Paramount's Scream VI led North American theaters with $113.6 million in receipts on the way to a global haul of nearly $169 million. 

Mathias Clasen, director of the Recreational Fear Lab and associate professor at Aarhus University in Denmark, believes horror's endurance ties directly to the emotional engagement of the audience. 

“Horror appeals to us because it simulates dangers that humans have evolved to attend to,” Clasen wrote her 2017 book Why Horror Seduces. “The idea here is that evolution has wired our reward system to activate in response to experiences that allow us to learn threatening information.” 

In short, scary movies cater to our hardwired, primal fears — sharp teeth, long claws and murderous men.

According to a 2019 study published by Margie Kerr, author of Scream: Chilling Adventures in the Science of Fear, our bodies release hormones when scared by things like horror films. “When you look at the brain of someone who is screaming, it looks very similar to someone who just watched somebody scream … Horror movies do allow us to connect with these different types of characters, and in doing so, think about who we are.”

And it works in favor of the traditional theatrical release window that people — particularly those age 18-34 — like to experience these films in groups rather than alone on the couch watching Netflix. 

“Where else can you be with hundreds of strangers in a room all having the same exact experience?” Marc Weinstock, Paramount’s worldwide marketing and distribution president, said in an interview with CNN last year. “You’re not distracted, you’re just sitting there and you have no idea what’s going to happen next. You can only experience in a theater.”

Horror is especially popular among young people, with a study by Movio revealing that the genre’s audience skews 11% younger than the film industry average. Considering the Global Cinema Advertising Association’s findings that more than half of movie theater visits come from the 14-to-35-year-old demographic, capturing a young audience is critical to the industry’s success.

WWE and Blumhouse Television will develop a scripted series based on WWE chairman Vince McMahon.

The limited scripted series, The United States of America Vs. Vince McMahon, will delve into the government’s 1994 indictment of McMahon for allegedly supplying anabolic steroids to WWE talent, according to the pro wrestling outfit. The series marks the first scripted series for  the WWE and the first scripted portrayal of the organization’s longtime chairman. 

Read Also: WWE to Offer New Year's Day Event 

Blumhouse Productions CEO Jason Blum along with Blumhouse TV President and former USA president Chris McCumber will develop the series. 

“We have a dramatic, riveting saga – one that’s crazier than fiction – that will appeal to the cross-section of Blumhouse and WWE fans,” said McCumber in a statement. “To say I’m thrilled about collaborating again with WWE is an understatement.”

Added WWE Executive Producer and Chief of Global Television Distribution Kevin Dunn: “Jason [Blum], Chris and their team at Blumhouse create amazing work and we look forward to delivering an inside look into one of the most pivotal moments in our company’s history.”

McMahon, Blum, McCumber, Dunn and Jeremy Gold will serve as executive producers for the series, said WWE. 

Blumhouse Television will develop and produce eight horror-themed movies for Epix as part of a new partnership reached between the two parties. 

The first film as part of the new deal, A House on the Bayou -- from writer/director Alex McAulay (Don’t Tell A Soul) -- will debut in December, with the remaining slate of films premiering in 2022, said network officials. The deal follows an earlier collaboration between the two companies for Fall River, a four-part docuseries debuting May 16 on Epix that follows a series of chilling murders tied to sex and satanic cults in the 1980s. 

For Blumhouse Television, the deal extends its reach into the traditional television/streaming world, following its current movie slate deal with Amazon and its Into The Dark anthology series with Hulu. 

“This partnership with Epix is an additional opportunity for us to collaborate with a great team in helping them grow their slate of genre films, while continuing to bring Blumhouse fans the kind of programming they know and love," Blumhouse Television President Chris McCumber said.

Epix President Michael Wright added, “Blumhouse’s track record of producing high-quality, audience-favorite films have made them a driving force in the horror genre renaissance, and have been top-notch partners for Epix. We can’t wait to work with [Blumhouse founder] Jason Blum and his talented team in this new capacity, and make EPIX the exclusive home of more Blumhouse content.”

GSN will look to scare up viewers with the greenlighting of its new original game show Hellevator, the network said Thursday.

The eight-episode series, produced by Blumhouse (Paranormal Activity, Insidious) and Matador, will subject contestants to a series of scary challenges within an abandoned warehouse, said network officials. Hellevator will premiere later this year, said GSN.

“The teams from Blumhouse and Matador have created a frighteningly fun and spooky game environment,” says Amy Introcaso-Davis, Executive Vice President of Programming and Development for GSN, who touted Hellevator as a development project at GSN's upfront presentation this spring.. “Horror and game enthusiasts alike will love Hellevator's wild ride of fear, suspense, and unrelenting challenges.”