The combined force of sequels for the animatronic shocker, “Wicked,” and “Zootopia” are making up for a pretty disappointing 2025.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 helps secure major year-end rebound at the box office

The combined force of sequels for the animatronic shocker, "Wicked," and "Zootopia" are making up for a pretty disappointing 2025.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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December 7, 2025 7:08 p.m. ET

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Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, and Josh Hutcherson in 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2'. Credit:

Ryan Green / Universal Pictures

- *Five Nights at Freddy's 2 *did the impossible at the box office this weekend, knocking both *Zootopia 2 *and *Wicked: For Good *out of contention for the top spot.

- The cumulative success of those films helped redeem the domestic box office, which had been winding down to a disappointing close.

- *Zootopia 2 *is nearing the $1 billion threshold globally, and *FNAF 2 *has broken the record for the highest-grossing post-Thanksgiving premiere at the U.S. box office.

The box office is back, baby.

It was another gangbusters weekend, as *Five Nights at Freddy's 2 *became the third new release in as many weeks to exceed $50 million in its domestic premiere. Two weekends before, *Wicked: For Good *stupendified with a $150 million U.S. opening take, which was topped the following weekend by *Zootopia 2*'s even more astounding $156 million premiere. Now a third sequel has knocked its predecessor off the pinnacle with a $63 million domestic open, per Comscore.

That makes for a combined total of $369 million in opening proceeds alone. If you pool the cumulative revenue *Wicked: For Good*, *Zootopia 2*, and *Five Nights at Freddy's 2 *have taken in since the first's Nov. 21 premiere, the number reaches $600 million; the global equivalent is days away from reaching $1.5 billion.

These numbers fall like monsoon rains upon the barren plain of the U.S. box office, which as of last month was steadily falling behind the previous year's performance. Factoring in the stellar runs of the films in this threepeat, the box office is now 1 percent ahead of last year's tally from January through December.

'Five Nights at Freddy's 2'; 'Wicked: For Good'; 'Zootopia 2'.

Ryan Green/Universal Pictures and Blumhouse; Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures; Disney

*Five Nights at Freddy's 2*'s opening take may not seem as impressive as those of its animated or musical peers, but factoring each film's budget into the equation actually singles *FNAF 2 *out for special mention.

The horror romp about animate and murderous animatronics was made on an estimated $36 million budget, which makes its domestic opening figure of $63 million a near doubling, and its global figure of $109.1 million over triple. *Wicked: For Good*, however, was budgeted at an estimated $150-$163 million, not including the film's marketing and publicity costs, which ought to be overwhelming. Still, *For Good *has come into the box office's life for a reason, grossing $16.7 million domestically and $30.1 million globally in week 3 for a global total of $440 million.

*Zootopia 2 *was pegged for an equivalent budgetary figure of $150 million, but its week 2 domestic and global performances leave absolutely no concern for Disney. In just a handful of days on screens around the world, the long-awaited family-friendly sequel has nearly hit $1 billion in earnings. This weekend, the film earned $43 million domestically and a jaw-dropping $262 million globally, knocking *FNAF 2 *down a peg.****

'Zootopia 2' banishes 'Wicked: For Good' to No. 2 with $156 million Thanksgiving box office

Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich reunite for 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2': 'It's a blessing'

December is often a fallow time at the box office, as specialty distributors and boutique imprints take over to give their awards hopefuls the proper theatrical windows in order to qualify for nominations. Within that context, *FNAF 2 *broke a significant record by securing the biggest post-Thanksgiving release since *The Last Samurai *sliced up $24 million way back in 2003.

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Despite this weekend's sequel fever, there were several other notable entries into the domestic and global leaderboards.

The release of Quentin Tarantino's *Kill Bill *and *Kill Bill Vol. 2 *supercut, aptly titled *Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair*, earned a respectable $3.2 million for Lionsgate — that's especially impressive considering its running time is more than four hours. *Now You See Me: Now You Don't *proved to have legs in the face of serious competition and a reduction in over 450 screens. The illusionist threequel earned $3.5 million in its third week in U.S. theaters, making for a domestic total of $55.3 million so far.

Focus Features also has an arthouse hit on its hands with the acclaimed Shakespeare riff *Hamnet*, which staked out its place in the top 10 a second week running, with a $2.3 million take.

Yes, Q4 at the domestic box office has seen plenty of new releases outperform their expectations and unseat what otherwise would have been the weekend's uncontested champ. Is that possible for James L. Brooks' rom-com *Ella McCay*? Yes. Is it likely? No.

Despite boasting a stacked ensemble cast that includes Emma Mackey, Jamie Lee Curtis, Woody Harrelson, and Ayo Edebiri, *Ella McCay *has received mixed to negative advance reviews. And frankly, *FNAF 2*, *Zootopia 2*, and *Wicked 2 *will* *be incredibly hard to beat.

But Brooks will try, alongside Bryan Fuller with his surreal comedy *Dust Bunny *and Josh Waller with his martial arts epic *Lone Samurai*.

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