Major Hollywood studios invest in a new crop of horror movies. According to data from Comscore, at least 29 productions of the genre will be released by the end of 2023.
Historically, the genre has suffered from a cycle of ups and downs. When a horror movie becomes an unlikely hit, studios try to replicate it with a flurry of similar titles.
After the boom comes an inevitable hangover. The quality of feature films drops and audiences get fed up with so many mediocre films, causing studios to back off.
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In 2023, it seems, we are in for a boom year. Major studios including Paramount Pictures, New Line Cinema (owned by Warner Bros. Pictures) and Universal Pictures have recently recruited top-notch writers and directors.
Typically, horror movies are made on much lower budgets than superhero epics or sci-fi sagas. When they score, they can represent a very large profit.
Last year, Paramount Pictures managed to score “Smile”. Initially, this Parker Finn psychological thriller was going to be released on streaming only. But at the last minute, they got the film into theaters, where it grossed $217 million on a production budget of just $17 million, making it one of the studio’s highest-grossing releases last year.
Other productions also had a surprising collection at the box office. See some examples:
- “The Conjuring” (2013): $320 million;
- “Run!” (2017): $256 million;
- “Annabelle: Creation” (2017): $307 million;
- “It” (2017): $705 million.
This year, horror got off to a strong start with “M3GAN,” about a killer doll animated by artificial intelligence. The film was produced by Blumhouse Productions, a pioneer in taking low-budget horror films and developing them into lucrative franchises including “Paranormal Activity”, “Insidious” and “The Purge”.
Since its debut in January, “M3GAN” has grossed $175 million worldwide. Meanwhile, “Scream VI” opened in March with $44.5 million at the US opening weekend.
Via The Washington Post.
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