2025’s Record-Breaking Horror Movie Box Office Will Be Even Harder To Beat After Next Month

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Despite a generally slow year for movies, with some successes like Lilo & Stitch and A Minecraft Movie, 2025 has been a surprisingly strong year for horror. In fact, horror is currently having its best year ever, and things are looking even better for the genre next month.

Okay, so 2025 was huge for horror. It made a record-breaking $1.2 billion at the box office! Honestly, it was a great year for the genre. We had some totally fresh stuff like Sinners and Weapons that really hit, but the sequels also killed it. I’m talking The Conjuring: Last Rites, Final Destination: Bloodlines, 28 Years Later – they all brought the scares. And Black Phone 2? Fantastic! It just proves horror is still king.

As of now, Last Rites is the highest-grossing horror film of 2025, earning $494.5 million globally – more than Sinners. But there’s still time left in the year! Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is coming out in December and is expected to significantly boost horror’s box office earnings, and it might even become the new number one film in the genre.

Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 Could Be The Biggest Horror Movie Of 2025

Five Nights at Freddy’s began as a popular, independently created horror game and has since grown into a huge franchise worldwide. The original game puts players in the shoes of a security guard trying to survive five nights at a pizza restaurant haunted by killer robots. These robots are controlled by Freddy Fazbear, the restaurant’s main character.

The game quickly became popular, leading to sequels that explored new locations and deepened its story. It has since grown into a large franchise, with various spin-off games, books, and even a haunted house attraction at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. After nearly a decade, a movie based on the game was released in 2023.

Even though critics didn’t like the first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie – it only received a 33% rating on Rotten Tomatoes – it was a financial success, earning $297.2 million globally. This is particularly impressive considering it was released on Peacock streaming service at the same time as its theatrical release.

The sequel to the popular horror film is coming to theaters in two years, and won’t be available for streaming right away. Because of this, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is expected to earn significantly more money than the original. It could even become the highest-grossing horror movie of 2025, surpassing The Conjuring 4.

Five Nights at Freddy’s has an advantage over Last Rites because it appeals to a wider audience, including both horror fans and those familiar with the game. To be more successful than Conjuring 4, Freddy’s needs to earn around $500 million – about $200 million more than the original film. While that’s a tough goal, the success of adaptations like Minecraft proves there’s a large audience for video game movies.

The biggest hurdle for the new film Freddy’s 2 will be other movies already in theaters. It’s opening on December 5th, squeezed between the release of Wicked: For Good (two weeks earlier) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (two weeks later). Wicked is expected to stay popular for a while, and Avatar 3 is predicted to be a huge box office success, just like the previous Avatar films.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 needs to earn a lot of money quickly to outperform Last Rites. Even if it doesn’t become the highest-grossing horror movie of 2025, it’s still expected to be a major success and likely lead to another sequel.

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2025-11-24 16:28