Stealing FNAF Movie Cutouts / Posters

Submission 3,449

Part of a series on Five Nights At Freddy's (2023 Movie). [View Related Entries]

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About

Stealing FNAF Movie Cutouts / Posters refers to a trend in which people steal the Five Nights at Freddy's cardboard cutouts, displays and posters at their movie theater when seeing the Five Nights at Freddy's movie in October 2023. The phenomenon started as a TikTok trend among moviegoers and FNAF fans in Mexico and South America where the film was released first.

Origin

Before the film's release in late October 2023, users on TikTok and Twitter / X started to joke about stealing the Five Nights at Freddy's cutouts. The earliest known posts were uploaded on October 13th, 2023. One was a video posted by TikToker^[1] @keilseconomy who received roughly 2.1 million plays and 542,200 likes in two weeks (shown below).

The other video posted on October 13th, 2023, was shared by X^[2] user @AFT0NES in which they joked about walking out of the theater with "the life size freddy fazbear cardboard cutout" in their butt, receiving roughly 48,000 likes in two weeks (shown below). It is unclear which video was posted first on October 13th.

On October 25th, 2023, the Five Nights at Freddy's movie was released in Mexico, among other countries like the United Kingdom. ^[3] On October 26th, the film was released in more countries like Brazil. ^[3] The film wasn't released in the United States until October 27th.^[3]

In Mexico, where the film was released first, moviegoers filmed themselves stealing the FNAF cardboard cutouts, displays and posters. Currently, the first discovered video was posted by TikToker^[4] @untalxavier on October 24th, 2023, showing kids in Mexico stealing a cutout, gaining roughly 3.9 million plays and 495,300 likes in three days (shown below).

Spread

Soon after the first video, similar videos were posted by Mexican TikTokers. For instance, on October 25th, 2023, TikToker^[5] @marcosmaya12 posted a video of someone walking out of a mall with a large cutout, gaining roughly 871,900 plays and 168,900 likes in two days (shown below, left). Also on October 25th, TikToker^[6] @dstroke_ posted a video with Spanish text that translated to, "When I go to the cinema to see the FNAF movie, I won't say nothing, but there will be signs." In two days, the video gained roughly 319,900 plays and 37,600 likes (shown below, right).

As multiple viral videos were posted to TikTok^[7]^[8] that documented the trend, users started to compile them in compilations. For instance, on October 26th, 2023, TikToker^[9] @clementineprice posted a compilation with text reading, "NO WAY YALL ARE ACTUALLY STEALING THE DISPLAY CUTOUTS," gaining roughly 677,700 plays and 177,100 likes in a day (shown below).