20 Movies Way More Successful Than Anyone Expected
9. Five Nights at Freddy's
While anyone with their eyes open knew that Blumhouse's low-budget adaptation of hit video game Five Nights at Freddy's was going to be an easy success, few saw it doing quite this well considering the circumstances of its release.
Even though the video game series has millions and millions of young fans, Universal made the surprise decision to simultaneously release the film in cinemas and on their U.S. streaming service Peacock.
It was therefore assumed that the day-and-date streaming release would put a massive dent in the film's box office, because why would people leave the house to see it in droves when they could just stay home and watch it?
But Five Nights at Freddy's still ended up grossing a stupid-good $297.1 million on a $20 million budget, enough that many wondered just how well it could've done with a theatrical-only bow.
Given that Five Nights at Freddy's 2 will be a cinema-exclusive release in December, it'll certainly be interesting to see if it can surpass its predecessor's total.