Michael B. Jordan on the red carpet in front of “Sinners” poster

(Adrian Dennis/Getty Images)

Scare share

Horror has emerged as the shining genre at the US box office in 2025

“Sinners” has been a clear standout in what’s turning into a bumper year for scary movies.

4/29/25 9:58AM

Let he who has not seen “Sinners”…

Even taking its $90 million budget, lauded director, and star-studded cast into account, Warner Bros’ vampiric flick “Sinners” is posting some seriously impressive numbers for studio execs to sink their teeth into.

The horror movie, the fifth collaboration in 12 years between director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordan, has been generating buzz among critics and audiences alike. For context, many films tend to drop 40% to 50% on their second weekends; “Sinners” dropped just ~6% last weekend from its $48 million opener. That’s the smallest second weekend drop for a debut over $40 million since “Avatar” back in 2009. Good company for any movie.

The $123 million that “Sinners” — a completely original movie in a slate typically awash with sequels and recycled IP — has grossed at the domestic box office so far has helped see the horror genre take a near record share of ticket sales this year.

Horror genre market share chart — Sherwood News

Spook in

In the streaming era, luring Americans into theaters is harder than ever, though a dose of big-screen scares still seems to be doing the trick. Data from box office research and news site The Numbers reveals that the horror genre has accounted for a 12.1% share of domestic box office ticket sales so far in 2025 — up from 9.8% last year and not far off the record 12.9% share that the genre took in 2021, thanks to the success of some fresh follow-ups in popular series like “Halloween” and “A Quiet Place.”

With the long-awaited third installment in Danny Boyle’s apocalyptic horror series, which started with 2002’s “28 Days Later,” landing in June, plus a gruesome slew of other incoming releases, there’s a lot for horror heads to get excited about. However, as Variety noted in a piece earlier this week, the glut of releases in 2025 — Universal, Sony, Neon, and Warner Bros. are all bringing out more horror movies than they did last year — could see some films cancel each other out and might scare genre devotees away through sheer fatigue.

Go Deeper: Jason Blum on the great horror renaissance and how Blumhouse is still scaring up big profits at the box office.

Millie Giles1/14/26

OpenAI set to air a minute-long Super Bowl ad for a second consecutive year, per WSJ

OpenAI is expected to broadcast a lengthy commercial at Super Bowl LX, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Having aired its first-ever paid ad at last year’s Big Game, the ChatGPT maker is set to take another 60-second ad slot during NBC’s broadcast on February 8, according to people familiar with the matter.

Exclusive | OpenAI Set to Run Another Super Bowl Ad as Chatbot Competition Heats Up

Millie Giles

GOLDEN RATIO

1/12/26

Big winners at the Golden Globes could indicate this week’s Oscar noms

With the Academy’s nominations voting opening today, the results of the Globes might signal the direction of certain Oscars categories (statistically speaking).

Chalamet with award at the Golden Globes

Millie Giles1/9/26

Tamagotchis are making a comeback, 3 decades after first becoming a global toy craze

If you were a ’90s kid, you might remember the craze around little egg-shaped toys with an 8-bit digital screen, displaying an ambiguous pet-thing that demanded food and attention.

Now, on the brand’s 30th anniversary, the Tamagotchi — the Japanese pocket-sized virtual pet that launched a thousand cute and needy tech companions, from Nintendogs to fluffy AI robots — is making a minor comeback.

Tamagotchi Google Search Trends — Sherwood News

Looking at Google Trends data, searches for “tamagotchi” spiked in December in the US, up around 80% from just six months prior, with the most search volume in almost two decades.

While the toys are popular Christmas gifts, with interest volumes often seen ticking up in December each year, the sudden interest might also have something to do with the birthday celebrations that creator and manufacturer Bandai Namco are putting on, including a Tokyo exhibition that opened on Wednesday.

Game, set, hatch

More broadly, modern consumers appear to have a growing obsession with collectibles (see: Labubu mania), as well as a taste for nostalgia (see: the iPod revival, among many other trends).

But, having finally hit 100 million sales in September last year, the brand itself is probably just glad to exist, giving a whole new generation the chance to experience the profound grief of an unexpected Tamagotchi death.

Millie Giles

PANDORA’S BOX OFFICE

1/5/26

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” surpasses $1 billion globally after 18 days

James Cameron is now the first director in history to have four consecutive movies gross over a billion dollars.

$5.6B

Max Knoblauch12/23/25

Disney could be well on its way to its third billion-dollar film of the year following a $345 million opening weekend for “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” The film’s opening gross puts the “Avatar” franchise’s total box office earnings at $5.6 billion — and counting.

The latest film, the second “Avatar” entry under Disney’s tent, earned about 75% of its total box office gross internationally — in line with previous movies in the (as of now) trilogy. Domestically, this one earned $88 million, falling short of expectations.

“Fire and Ash” was the widest Imax release ever, debuting on 1,703 screens globally and earning $43.6 million through the format. The $345 million “Fire and Ash” opening weekend was the second-highest of 2025, behind Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” which recently passed the $1 billion mark, globally.

Year to date, Disney has earned $5.8 billion globally at the box office.