Five Nights at Freddy’s, starring Josh Hutcherson and Piper Rubio, became Blumhouse Production’s biggest debut ever, raking in $80 million its opening weekend.
Photographer: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures
Hollywood Loves Halloween: Inside the Lucrative Business of Horror Movies
Studios have perfected a formula to make horror movies quickly and inexpensively. The latest hit — Five Night's at Freddy's — is just the latest example.
With more than 75 million tickets sold, 46 films released and $798 million grossed domestically in 2023, horror movies continue to be Hollywood’s reliable moneymaker, and it’s a genre growing in importance. Since 1995 horror has more than doubled its market share in the US and Canada, and it’s still growing. Ahead of Halloween, the genre has already accounted for 10.5% of this year’s ticket sales—double its longer-term average.
That’s good news for studios looking to make a quick buck. Of the top-20 most-profitable films based on return on investment since 1977, nine are horror movies, according to movie data analytics firm the Numbers.