The results are in, and judging by a current Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of just 28 percent, we can say with some degree of certainty that Five Nights at Freddy’s has not become the latest live-action adaptation to buck the video game curse.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be a massive hit, though, with box office projections putting the Blumhouse production in with a shot at clearing $50 million in its opening weekend, a staggering achievement made all the more impressive considering it’s debuting day-and-date on Peacock.
Bad movies make big money all the time, but what stings even more for Five Nights at Freddy’s is that Nicolas Cage pretty much did the exact same thing almost three years ago, and nobody seemed to care. Willy’s Wonderland found the Oscar-winning maverick playing a silent janitor who ends up battling a demonic cult that possessed the animatronic residents of an abandoned amusement arcade following a suicide pact, and it’s every bit as insane as it sounds.
Unfortunately, a limited theatrical run yielded less than $500,000 in ticket sales, and even if the FnaF comparisons were being used to slander director Kevin Lewis’ film to a certain extent, a 61 percent Rotten Tomatoes score is still twice as high as the actual movie based on the source material.
If there was any justice in the world, Cage’s fantastically deranged performance in Willy’s Wonderland would have been the box office sensation, because it’s already clear that Five Nights at Freddy’s will have a moment in the sun best described as fleeting.