Thursday, May 21, 2026

Movie Divide: “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” Scores Whopping $7.2 Million in Previews, But Gets Shmeared by Critics

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Horror is one place where critics and fans are divided.

Last night, Universal’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” made $7.2 million in previews.

That’s huge. Will it do multiples over the weekend? Hard to say. Horror films tend to bring in their fans on the first days, then slow down.

Still, who wouldn’t want an opening night like that?

The critics, however, were less impressed. The reviews may be scarier than the movie!

On Rotten Tomatoes the movie has around a 12% rating, panned by just about everyone. Eviscerated. Frank Scheck wrote in The Hollywood Reporter: “The film’s cast deserves credit, not so much for their performances as their ability to keep a straight face throughout.”

Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press wrote: “It’s an incoherent mess, something that, back in the day, would be straight to DVD. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” has an after-school special vibe with no real horror and no real awareness that it should.”

The first “Five Nights” movie did wind up making over $137 million domestically. The original also made $3 million more on preview night than the new one. Including Thurs and Fri for that release, the total was just over $39 million. So that’s something to remember.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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