Between franchises, action and superheroes Hollywood has found a surprising gold mine: horror movies

14.4% of the American box office already belongs to horror movies. It is its historical maximum and a great leap from 9.8% of last year confirming what we already suspected: the damn genre has become an unexpected hero of Hollywood.

‘Weapons‘, the last success of director Zach Cregger, has debuted with $ 42.5 million collected and 100% critical approval in Rotten Tomatoes. The pattern is confirmed.

Why is it important. The era of streaming has created the perfect conditions for this genre:

• Cheap productions, between 5 and 30 million compared to 200 of a Blockbuster.
• Viral by its very nature.
• Consumed in the intimacy of the home, where no one judges you for shouting (when they reach the platforms).

Simple equation: Less investment, greater return.

The contrast. In 2021, the best previous year for the genre, dominated the sequelae. ‘Halloween’, ‘A Quiet Place’. Now the original stories, new scares.

• Six horror films have exceeded 50 million worldwide this year.
• There are 29 horror launches scheduled for 2025.
• The average budget is a tenth of a Blockbuster traditional.

Yes, but. The industry fears an early saturation. Variety I already talked in April of ‘Horror Glut’ (‘Terror Empacho’). The risk is to turn fear into routine and end up tireding the viewer too early.

In perspective. Historically, terror is the Hollywood refuge genre in times of crisis.

• In the great depression it was when the classic monsters of Universal were born.
• In the seventies (Vietnam, Watergate), they arrived ‘The exorcist‘ and ‘The Matanza de Texas‘.
• There were also rebounds in Pandemia.

Today, with the industry staggering between The strike hangoverthe change of model towards the streaming And the threat of AI, terror is the answer again. Cheap to produce, easy to sell, impossible to ignore.

And now what. The generative AI can be the following revolution of the genre. Special effects at balance price, scripts generated by trained algorithms in our deepest fears. Terror, which has always been the most honest genre about the human condition, could be the first to hug the AI without complexes.

Fear sells. He has always done it. But now, also saves balances.

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Outstanding image | Warner Bros. Pictures