This is the latest edition of the Movies Fantasy League newsletter. The drafting window for this season has closed, but you can still sign up to get the newsletter, which provides a weekly recap of box-office performance, awards nominations, and critical chatter on all the buzziest movies.
The last few weeks in movies — and Movie Fantasy League updates — were headlined by some of our culture’s greatest figures: Martin Scorsese, Taylor Swift, Chase, Marshall, and Skye of the PAW Patrol. This week, we get something different: the blockbuster opening weekend of Blumhouse and Universal’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, a horror film based on the cult-classic video-game franchise that dares to ask the question, “What if the E in Charles Entertainment Cheese stood for ‘evil’?â€
Join us now as we revel in Freddy’s tens of millions, take a look at some awards contenders in limited release, and see where our leaderboard has shaken out after five weeks of points.
Box Office: A Country Bears Scream-boree
With a $78 million opening weekend, Five Nights at Freddy’s picked up the ninth-biggest opening-weekend number of the year, earning a bunch of other milestones as well:
âž¼ Biggest global opening weekend for a Blumhouse movie
âž¼ Biggest opening weekend for a horror movie directed by a woman for director Emma Tammi
âž¼ Eighth-biggest opening weekend by a woman director, period
Unfortunately for anyone who drafted Five Nights at Freddy’s, milestones such as those don’t count for any points, but they do pick up bonuses for crossing $50 million (+20 points) and finishing in first place this weekend (+20 more), for a total of 118 points.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour dropped down to second place with $149 million total so far and 249 points in the league. Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon is up to $40 million now, poised to enter Scorsese’s all-time top-ten domestic grossers (it’s already there with worldwide gross) and will head toward top-five territory over the coming weeks, depending on whether the good reviews and awards-season buzz keep it chugging along.
Speaking of awards-season buzz: A couple buzzy films opened in incredibly limited release this weekend, with Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers opening on six screens and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla opening on four. Each film averaged about $33,000 per screen, with Priscilla poised to go wide next weekend and The Holdovers on November 22.
Finally, a shout-out to anyone who picked Dicks: The Musical for $1. That movie has finally crossed the million-dollar box-office threshold and is now on the board with one point! Hard part’s over.
Leaderboard
The Five Nights at Freddy’s points give us nine movies that have scored at least 40 points in the league — which means the scoreboard is hopping all over the place. This week’s overall points leader is Cinemawithcj with a total of 630 points, goosed by a triple play of The Eras Tour, Killers of the Flower Moon, and Five Nights at Freddy’s (with a little help from the Exorcist and the PAW Patrol). And they still have all those Barbie points just waiting to unleash later this season. Not a bad position to be in.
Meanwhile, Clay Keller from the Screen Drafts podcast is back atop the standings in the Podcasters League with 497 points. Clay is sporting a very balanced lineup right now, with The Eras Tour, Freddy’s, and Exorcist holding down the box office, and Barbie and Origin contributing awards points from the Gothams. Throw in that one point for Dicks and the only two movies yet to contribute points to Clay’s slate are Trolls Band Together and Oppenheimer. One of those two movies is poised to start collecting awards points real soon. And so might Oppenheimer!
Mini-League Spotlight
We’re going to periodically take a peek at specific podcast mini-leagues and see how they’re faring. To start, we’re paying a visit to the Blankies, populated by the fans of the great Blank Check podcast. The Blankies had 134 signups, ensuring a robust competition throughout the season. Hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims are floating around the middle of the list at the moment, waiting for awards season to kick in for real. Currently, the points leader is Old Deuteronomeems (we love a Cats reference, now and always), who has the Eras Tour, Freddy’s, Killers of the Flower Moon trio, plus Barbie, Poor Things, and All of Us Strangers, totaling 482 points. Special shout-out to Vulture’s own Rebecca Alter, who is currently in fourth place in the Blankies league with her roster, Here we go mama (A+++), despite not even having Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Looking Ahead
Priscilla is the only movie in the Fantasy League that’s opening wide this weekend. Sofia Coppola has never had a movie hit $50 million at the box office, and her last theatrical feature, The Beguiled, made $10 million. Keep those expectations in check.