The first half of autumn 2023 was not a good time for the domestic box office. The WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes slowed Hollywood’s publicity machine to a crawl, and if certain summer tentpoles—most prominently Barbie and Oppenheimer—managed to capture audience attention sans red carpet interviews and talk show appearances, the industry as a whole was not so fortunate. As studios shuffled their releases further and further down the schedule, cinema operators were left with very little to look forward to in the immediate future. The first four weekends of October saw one new wide release each, and if one of them was Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour—a late and very successful addition to the calendar—another was a day-and-date release, coming out simultaneously in theaters and on the streaming platform Peacock.
That film, director Emma Tammi’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, shocked the industry with an $80 million opening weekend, setting records for Blumhouse’s best opening, best opening for a day-and-date title, and highest-grossing horror film of 2023, achieving the latter despite a steep second-weekend drop. An opening weekend crowd—majority (58%) male, overwhelmingly (80%) 25 and under—that could have watched Five Nights at Freddy’s at home instead opted for the theatrical experience, treating the long-awaited debut as an event to share with fellow fans, rather than as mere content.
A formative video game for many in Gen Z, Five Nights at Freddy’s was initially released in 2014. A movie version was announced the following year, with Blumhouse, fresh off the success of Get Out, coming onboard in 2017. As the Freddy’s phenomenon grew, so did curiosity about the film among its young fanbase. Was this film ever actually going to come out? If so, what would the plot look like? The original game didn’t really have one aside from “security guard tries not to get killed by creepy animatronic dolls.” As the script began to take final form, that security guard became Mike (Josh Hutcherson), a young man tormented by childhood memories of witnessing his younger brother’s abduction. Tasked with keeping his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) safe, he enlists the help of police officer Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), who seems to know more about the abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza than she lets on.
Mike, Abby, Vanessa, and Freddy Fazbear’s sadistic creator William Afton (Matthew Lillard) return for round two of the growing film franchise, out from Universal (with theatrical exclusivity this time) on December 5. Also returning is director Tammi, who went from moody indie horror for her first film (2018’s The Wind, released by IFC Midnight) to the surprise horror hit of the year for her second. With Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 only just finished, Tammi spoke to Boxoffice Pro about proving the skeptics wrong.
The opening weekend of the first Five Nights at Freddy’s was a very pleasant surprise for a lot of people in the industry, who were reacting to the soaring box office. As director, what was that weekend like for you?
It was really surreal and pretty magical as well. The movie came out while we were still in the wake of some of the writer’s and actor’s strikes. I believe the writer’s strike had lifted at that point, but the actor’s strike had not. We didn’t have a premiere with the cast or anything like that.
Part of what felt surreal was experiencing [the film] as a general audience member, like I was just going to see it with fans at the local AMC or an independent cinema. I think I went to a different theater every day that weekend, just gut-checking that what was happening with the box office was real. I was feeling how the audience was engaging with the material. It’s not every day that you sit through a film and you want people to talk through it. And in this case, you do. The fanbase really does chat with each other throughout the film. It’s the best-case scenario, because it shows their engagement and excitement, and that they’re picking up on Easter eggs and things that we were hoping they’d be excited about. It was a surreal weekend and very exciting both emotionally and creatively, but also, obviously, in terms of how the numbers were coming in.
A lot of people just assumed that a movie going day-and-date meant that it would be a nonfactor in terms of box office … and that Gen Z didn’t see the value of going to the movies. You proved them wrong on both points.
That’s totally accurate. I think there’s something particularly exhilarating about being the underdog. Like you said, we had a lot of factors that people perceived as stacked against us: the day-and-date of it all, the fact that it was geared towards a Gen Z audience that had not been showing up for theatrical, historically, as much. To be able to succeed in the wake of that felt extra gratifying. It also felt like a win for movies. I still feel that way every time something does well at the box office. I’m so glad that it’s bolstering the theaters. It really feels like, to a degree, we’re all in this together, to keep this amazing tradition of going to see films together, and see them in large format, and in a dark theater with fantastic sound. Streaming is amazing, and it’s changed everything. But going to the cinema on opening weekend—it’s not a tradition I want to lose. It’s one I think most people don’t want to lose. It was so reinvigorating that this was something Gen Z was excited for.
On top of that, you’re making a video game movie, a category that, until the release of The Super Mario Bros. movie six months prior, was practically considered cursed at the box office. And the success of Mario doesn’t necessarily translate to Freddy’s, which is not a movie for young kids.
Totally. It’ll keep evolving and changing, like on the TV side, with The Last of Us. There’ve been so many different ways recently that video games have been successfully interpreted into long-form narrative film and television. I’m very excited about it. It’s really a testament to the fanbases. But those fanbases can also be very critical, and rightly so, of the thing that’s so beloved to then. You never know. You go in, obviously, hoping to hit the mark, but it can be really divisive. I really felt like the fanbase embraced [Five Nights at Freddy’s] so wholeheartedly. Not only were they enthusiastic, but they were also gracious. They were so thankful that this adaptation had happened, because so many of them had wanted it for so long. I felt very fortunate to be a part of that, because to be able to deliver to a big audience something that they’ve been wanting is just not something that you get to do every day as a filmmaker.
I imagine having Five Nights at Freddy’s creator Scott Cawthon involved helped to gain fans’ trust. He created this universe that consists of multiple video games, novels, graphic novels, player guides, tabletop games … there’s a lot of lore. What do you keep, what do you leave out …
Working with Scott on how to crack the story of the second film was kind of a twofold operation. He had always had the instinct to affiliate the first movie with the first game and the second movie with the second game. So, there was a lot that was inherently baked into what we were going to do with the sequel. That included new animatronics and a handful of other setpieces and elements that were key to the second game. We were also really trying to figure out how to continue Abby, Mike, and Vanessa’s storylines in a way that felt authentic and true.
In terms of lore specifically, that’s something that Scott brings to the table. He has the priority list of things that he knows the fanbase is going to want to see included. That’s really a key factor in the whole thing.
How was working with animatronics this time around? They looked great in the first movie, but pretty much the only times you see them you’re inside, and it’s dark. In the sequel, you have a bigger scope, which includes outside scenes for the animatronics.
We’d learned a lot, making the first movie, about the animatronics. How to build them, how they move, how to get personality out of them, all these amazing things that our crew and our puppeteers and our stunt folks all collaborated on to make special.
On this one, we were more than tripling what we worked on with the first one. It was a huge build for Henson’s Creature Shop, which did an incredible job. And Robert Bennett, our lead designer, just knocked it out of the park. [The animatronics] are stunning to look at. They all need to be reimagined in terms of how they move and how they’re puppeteered. That was a huge challenge, but it was also very exciting that we were able to take the toolkit that we had from movie one and figure out how to apply that but also expand it and adapt. It was really wild. One of the most complicated animatronics had about 13 people [operating it] when we were in a full-body, wide shot. It was a massive team effort, and everyone was so amped, because they just looked amazing. It was a really fun aspect of the shoot this time around.
I love that you used practical effects. You look at Jurassic Park, and the dinosaurs still look amazing, when some of the CGI creatures from the same time period … not so much.
It felt really right to approach both the first movie and this one as practically as we could. It felt right for the time period of the movie. It felt right for what these animatronics are [as characters]: imperfect, scary, wonderful, bizarre. In terms of interacting with the cast, [practical effects let us] capture spontaneous moments. For all those reasons, we wanted to do as much practical as possible, just in terms of approach.
Of course, actually building them was one of the most fun parts of the whole process, so I’m so glad we didn’t shortchange ourselves by not having that element.
Working with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop must have been a dream.
Total dream. I still pinch myself every day because of it. I asked one of our sound designers to go there the other day to capture some practical sounds from the animatronics that happened to be at the shop. I said, “It’s going to be the best field trip of your life.” He was just floored. He said it was one of the best experiences of his life. I feel that way every time I go. It never gets old. I’m forever in awe of what they do and how special that place is.
Growing up in New York City, what movie theaters did you go to most often?
I grew up on the Upper West Side, and some of the theaters by my house are no longer there. The AMC on 68th Street, I think that opened when I was in high school or middle school, so I definitely went to that one, and that one’s still there. The Lincoln Center cinemas that were
showing more independent fare were a favorite. There was a small cinema a couple of blocks from my house called Metro. I was so lucky to be able to take advantage of [repertory] series. I remember going to a Charlie Chaplin series with my dad and a Kurosawa series. I felt exposed to some really fantastic filmmakers early on, on the big screen, which was so cool.
Film Forum is one of my favorite theaters in New York. And the Ziegfeld. There’s such a treasure trove of great theaters there. That being said, when I moved to L.A. and went to the Arclight for the first time, I was like, this is a great town for seeing movies. Of course, it still is, even though the Arclight is, sadly, not there anymore.
I remember going to see Lawrence of Arabia with my dad, probably when I was around 12. To be able to experience it for the first time [on the big screen], a film that my dad had seen a hundred times and was his absolute all-time favorite, was this very special shared moment. And obviously the film itself blew my mind. To see it through my own fresh lens, but then to also see it through his eyes, was really cool.
What’s your concessions go-to?
I like something salty, obviously popcorn, and something sweet, and mixing them together. When I was a kid, it was Milk Duds, but now I feel like they’d pull out all of my fillings, so I opt for a less chewy option. But usually chocolate.
Closing up with Freddy’s: Have you had a chance to show much sequel footage to test audiences?
Not much. We just finished our sound mix. It’s literally hot off the press. In terms of showing it to people, it’s been very limited. We’ve tried to show it to a curated audience to get feedback, but we don’t want to overexpose it. We’re really sensitive to the fact that leaks are highly likely on this one, and we don’t want to spoil anything for the fans, so we’re really, really trying to keep it under lock and key. Knock on wood: That’s been pretty successful so far.
In terms of the very small amount of folks that have seen it, and specifically who are fans of the game, or fans of movie one, they’ve been really excited about it. We’re feeling optimistic. You never know what’s going to happen, but we’ve really tried our best to land the sequel exactly as we think [the fans] are hoping for.
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