Horror movies are a huge investment for Hollywood

A1 Digital India News: Over the past decade, horror films have captured an increasing share of the U.S. box office and now regularly account for nearly $1 billion in annual ticket sales, or 10% of movies seen in the U.S. and Canada. This year, just a month before Halloween, the genre earned $587 million, including hits such as A Quiet Place: Day One, Alien: Romulus and Longlegs, the breakout indie film Is.

"The community experience of watching horror movies in theaters is unmatched," said Imagine Entertainment Inc. Anthony LaVerde, chief executive of the 330-screen chain in the Midwest. "There is a unique energy that comes from sharing the secrets, screams and emotions with others." The adrenaline rush sets horror apart from genres such as comedy and drama, which have seen box office earnings decline over the past decade as streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. Prime Video is driving viewers to theaters to watch such films instead of waiting for them to premiere on their phones or at home.

This shift has resulted in producers and filmmakers panicking, with horror earning 70% more box office dollars in 2023 than it did in 2013. The financial model hasn’t changed in the past decade, from The Conjuring, which grossed $316 million on a $20 million budget in 2013, to M3GAN, which will earn $181 million on a $12 million budget in 2022. M3GAN, a film about an artificially intelligent doll that goes on a murderous rampage, captivated young audiences, thanks in part to a spooky dance performance that went viral on TikTok.

This kind of content is key to making horror appeal to Generation Z, the genre’s most enthusiastic customer base since the pandemic. A survey conducted in October 2022 showed that 66% of Generation Z respondents had seen a horror film in theaters in the past 12 months, and 42% of Millennials, 23% of Generation X, and 6% of 20 year old Baby Boomers had done so. For studios, the horror genre also benefits from a significantly lower bar for financial success.

For example, unlike action films, which typically have higher production costs due to special effects and multimillion-dollar payments to actors, horror films often feature unknown actors. In recent years, successful films including Barbarians, Smile, and The Black Phone have grossed over 10 times their budgets at the box office, making it one of the most profitable ventures in modern filmmaking. The $217 million global ticket sales for Smile, the most anticipated horror film in 2022, is less than the production budget of a typical Marvel Studios superhero film, which has a much larger breakeven threshold.

If you enjoy the horror genre but are afraid to watch it alone at home, don't worry. Several films releasing later this year might inspire you to head to the theater. From Smile 2 (October 18) to Robert Eggers' Nosferatu (December 25), there are plenty of horror sequels and remakes on the way, with cinephiles on community website Letterboxd ready, as the trailer suggests, to dive into the darkness.