20 TERRIBLE Horror Movies That Were Huge Hits
14. Five Nights at Freddy's
There's perhaps no better recent example of a truly critic-proof horror movie than Five Nights at Freddy's, the long-awaited adaptation of the hit video game franchise which was largely rubbished by critics for its moldy "scares," near-incoherent approach to lore, and excessive runtime.
But that didn't stop it scoring a strong "A-" CinemaScore with its teenage target audience, who turned up in numbers that drove its box office to an outrageous $297.2 million - almost 15-times its $20 million budget.
It's an even more mind-bogglingly impressive result when you consider that Five Nights at Freddy's was released on streaming service Peacock in the U.S. the very same day it landed in cinemas. Its success was nothing if not a testament to the strength of the IP, and that its millions of teen fans wanted to experience it on the big screen with their friends.
Recent sequel Five Nights at Freddy's 2 was similarly panned by critics but also performed well, scoring $239.6 million on an admittedly bigger budget of around $50 million, ensuring that a threequel is already in the works.