Horror Movies Brought in About $1.2 Billion at the Box Office in 2016

2016 wasn’t a bad year for horror movies as the genre grossed nearly $1.2 billion at the box office, better than most industry analysts had expected.

This information was compiled by Tom Holland’s Terror Time from public sources and accurately reflects worldwide gross for films with both domestic and international distribution.

By far the biggest horror hit of the year was The Conjuring 2, bringing in more than $320 million, making up more than 25% of all horror receipts on its own. The runaway success of the film may very well be repeated next year with a sequel – The Nun – which has a July 13, 2018 release date.

At the other end of the spectrum, The Eyes of My Mother brought in not quite $9,000 on an end of the year release.

Overall, the industry seems to be bouncing back from a less than stellar 2015. Box office receipts were up to a little more than $38 billion worldwide, mostly being dominated by movies with 9 figure marketing campaigns.

It remains to be seen how well 2017 will treat the horror genre. Already, Get Out and Alien: Covenant have had success at the box office, with both hovering around the $240 million mark. If the current trend stands, there won’t be much of a difference between the 2016 and 2017 numbers, if anything 2017 may end up right around $1.1 billion due to fewer releases but stronger receipts on those which have come out.

Source: Tom Holland's Terror Time