Other than major Hollywood blockbusters, no film genre has been more successful in recovering from the pandemic than horror. While mid-budget action, musical, and romantic comedies continue to struggle, horror films have consistently delivered for studios at the box office.
James Wan’s MALIGNANT was the last major horror movie to underperform in theatres, earning $13.3M in North America and $35M total worldwide on a production budget of $40M. Many point to the reason for this being Warner Bros. decision to release it to theatres and HBO Max simultaneously since its 9/10/21 release was still within the period when WB had committed today & date releasing for all new titles.
Ever since, horror has produced a string of hits including HALLOWEEN KILLS, SCREAM, THE BLACK PHONE, X, BARBARIAN, and, most recently, SMILE. Even minor titles such as THE INVITATION have been profitable by maintaining very low production budgets ($7M estimated).
Once looked down on as “trashy,” horror movies have emerged as reliable box office earners, with creative plots and storytelling. Specialty distributor Bloody Disgusting opened TERRIFIER 2 this weekend at 886 locations, earning $850K and cracking the top ten in ticket sales. This is despite being sandwiched between last week’s box office winner SMILE and next week’s projected number one movie HALLOWEEN ENDS. Studios are convinced that moviegoers are resilient in their desire to go to the movies for a good scare.