While the Freddy Vs Jason forced the two villains to battle each other onscreen. Since the release of 1984’s original A Nightmare On Elm Street, the two franchises fought to out-earn each other at the box office and become the more profitable teen horror series.
Both Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street had TV spinoffs, both franchises had a string of sequels, and both series even shared a gradual worsening critical reception. While Freddy was more talkative than his long-time rival, the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street movies had more in common than might be obvious to audiences on first viewing. With the likes of Kevin Bacon and Johnny Depp appearing in their first movies, both slasher franchises were launchpads for massive future stars.
Meanwhile, both Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street were incredibly financially successful as franchises despite the woeful reviews received by their later sequels. Both series also received remakes in the late 00s/early 10s, with A Nightmare On Elm Street’s 2010 remake performed a bit better at the box office. With so many evident similarities, it was inevitable that the two slasher franchises would spend the 80s (and beyond) battling for dominance over the slasher sub-genre. In financial , Friday the 13th is easily the most successful series of the two. However, while box office earnings are an important consideration, the argument over which series achieved more is actually more complicated.
Nightmare On Elm Street’s Box-Office Impact
The original Nightmare On Elm Street was a sizable financial success, like the original Friday the 13th had been four years earlier. However, that is not the only similarity when it comes to the financial performance of the two slasher franchises. Like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger peaked late thanks to inflation. While 2010’s fan-hated Nightmare On Elm Street remake may have been critically derided, the re-imagining was still technically the most successful movie in the Nightmare On Elm Street series, earning $117 million. This was a hair’s breadth better than Freddy Vs Jason’s $116 million, which in turn was a big jump from the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise’s third-biggest hit, the original movie. A Nightmare On Elm Street earned $57 million upon its 1984 release, a huge haul that the series wouldn't beat until decades later. After that, the fourth movie, Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, earned $49 million, which is as good as the franchise managed in its critically hated later years.
Friday the 13th’s Box-Office Performance
Technically, sci-fi slasher sequel Jason X, for example), by and large, the Friday the 13th sequels earned less with each new release while Freddy’s box-office history was more erratic and tougher to predict.
Which Slasher Franchise Made More Money?
Since the Friday the 13th franchise dwindled at a fairly consistent rate while the Nightmare On Elm Street series was more irregular, it can be tempting to assume that Freddy was more popular with audiences as a whole. This is seemingly reinforced by the fact that Freddy Vs Jason was the most successful Friday the 13th movie ever, not to mention the fact that Friday the 13th’s 2009 remake earned less than Nightmare On Elm Street’s 2010 revival. However, while Nightmare On Elm Street influenced most modern slasher movies more than Friday the 13th thanks to the supernatural twist the movie introduced to the familiar sub-genre formula, the series was not as financially well-rewarded as Jason’s simple slasher setup. With a lifetime haul of $755 million compared to the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise’s $592 million, the Friday the 13th series made significantly more money than its famous competitor.
Friday the 13th Vs Nightmare On Elm Street: Who Won?
While Friday the 13th was objectively a bigger financial hit over the decades, neither franchise really won the slasher wars. Since the Predator franchises, both Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th’s iconic villains always existed in the shadow of an even more famous inspiration, and it was this pre-existing hit series that managed to outdo both of them in financial when it comes to worldwide box-office totals.
Some years ago, the creators of both rival franchises could console themselves with better reviews. However, despite how unpopular the later Halloween sequels were with critics, the solid reception of Halloween 2018 means that, compared to the much weaker critical reception of the Friday the 13th and Nightmare On Elm Street remakes, the earlier series wins in that category, too. Ultimately, the lesson for both A Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday the 13th is that there is no dethroning the original when it comes to slasher success.
