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.
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.
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.
