Experience marketing has been all the rage the last few years, with plenty of pop-ups/events based on popular IPs. Now, Five Nights at Freddy’s is launching its first permanent immersive restaurant in New Jersey. Fans of the video-game-turned-film-franchise will be able to enjoy a less terrifying version of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza starting in 2027.
Developer ScottGames is on board to help bring it to life in the American Dream retail complex in Bergen County. This will be “the world’s first permanent immersive restaurant experience tied to the franchise,” according to a spokesperson.
“For years, fans of ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s‘ have imagined what it would feel like to step inside Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and we’re thrilled to have been selected to finally bring that world to life, only at American Dream,” said Don Ghemezian, chief executive officer at American Dream.
This new restaurant will also include arcade games and (we’re assuming, non-killer) animatronics. Freddy & the Fazbear Band will be on the main stage with Foxy in Pirate Cove. Guests willing to go behind the curtain can even participate in horror-inspired multiplayer game experiences.
Appealing to Fans
“The only way this experience succeeds is if it’s created by a team that knows Five Nights at Freddy’s inside and out. The animatronic show has to be authentic. The food has to be high quality,” said Atreyu Alcantar, American Dream’s creative manager and creative lead for the attraction. “We’re not building a set that looks like Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza — we’re building Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. This experience will immerse longtime fans in the world they’ve imagined for years.”
Alcantar is right; this project will only work if the team is as dedicated as the fan base. Restaurants are a notoriously risky investment, but add things like arcade games, animatronics, and immersive games, and the overhead goes through the roof. Let alone it being a permanent Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. (Even though these would still be factors for a pop-up restaurant. It wouldn’t have to worry about long-term maintenance, like a permanent installation would.)
The only way to really pull something like this off is to make sure your lore/design is 100% accurate. Given that fans of the franchise are clearly who this is being marketed to. But by offering quality food, this could also easily appeal to just general horror, video game, and themed-restaurant fans. While we understand the Five Nights at Freddy’s fandom is huge, it’s just, realistically, how many of them are going to go to New Jersey for pizza and video games?
The Franchise
The Five Nights at Freddy’s franchise all started in 2014 with the popular horror video game created by Scott Cawthon. In 2023, Cawthon co-wrote a film adaptation with Seth Cuddeback (Mateo), directed by Emma Tammi (Into the Dark).
The first film stars Josh Hutcherson (The Beekeeper), Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio (For All Mankind), and Matthew Lillard (Scream). It tells the story of Mike (Hutcherson), a security guard with a troubled past who agrees to take an overnight job at the abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Only to discover that the restaurant’s animatronic mascots become bloodthirsty once the sun sets.
The second film debuted in 2025 with Cawthon handling the script solo, and Tammi returning to direct. The sequel had all the aforementioned cast reprise their roles. Set one year after the events of the first film, we see Mike and his family once again race to wipe out an army of killer animatronics.
The upcoming third film in the franchise will be written by Gary Dauberman (Salem’s Lot), with Tammi directing. At this time, plot details for that project are still being kept under wraps. Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 is expected to be released in 2027, possibly in conjunction with the opening of the real Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza.
We’ll keep you posted on these and other Five Nights at Freddy’s projects as they become available.
