Avatar, Star Wars and Titanic are just some of the blockbusters we hear were massively successful at the Box Office, generating the sort of cash only people like Mark Zuckerberg can comprehend. But where do our beloved horror flicks come into scale? Well, lucky for you guys I have been tasked with reporting on the top ten highest grossing horror movies of all time.

I started off with going straight to one of my favorite websites for this sort of info boxofficemojo.com and clawed through 500 of the worldwide top grossing movies and picked any that had ‘horror’ in their genres. Here is what came out top.

Worldwide Top Grossing Horror Titles as of 09-09-2014 (Latest Info)

No 10.  Ghostbusters $291M
Now, I know what you’re thinking “This is not a horror movie” and in many ways you would be right. It is in fact a Horror Comedy according to the Mojo’s categories, and I did say I would use any movies that had horror in their genre, therefore it has to be included.  So how did it make my list? One word KIDS. At only a certificate of PG (kids obviously less worried about in those days) Ghostbusters had the benefit of kids being able to go as long as they had a parent / guardian with them. Better still, a theme song by Ray Parker Jr that went to number one for three weeks around the time of the movie release. This became a massive hit with the little sprogs and they were all busting their hump to see it. The movie also had massive dealings with character figurines and even their own cartoon series. This movie appealed to all ages and IMO this is why the catchphrase “Who you gonna call” is still known to all ages today.

No 9.  Resident Evil: Afterlife $296M
I really can’t get my head around this one guys and gals. This movie did exceptionally well and I just don’t know why. The Resident Evil movies have always achieved moderate numbers due to the international following of the video game and although they do not follow the game storyline fully, they did include concepts such as the Nemesis Project. This may keep the thumb pressers interested, but the only thing that did cross my mind is that it was released in 3D in 2010 at the height of the new active 3D TV sets.  Avatar made a big impression a few months before and maybe the search for 3D movies were more in demand especially for one of the first horrors, timing the release perfectly. I would love to hear of anything I failed to mention guys so leave a comment.

No 8.  Van Helsing $300M
I’m sure many people out there consider this a horror given that it has loads of monsters and vampires and bats and so on, but I don’t. However I did say that I was using boxofficemojo.com’s categorisation of the movies and unfortunately they believe this is a horror. So, why did it take a lot of money? Well it has some top billed actors including Hugh Jackman (considered one of the sexiest men alive) Kate Beckinsale (considered one of the sexiest woman alive), yada yada yada. It had loads of Hollywood budget for special effects so all the trailer watchers can go “ooh that looks like a good movie” and advertising budget to make sure it got to them. Finally it is a certificate of 12A allowing pretty much everyone to see it meaning families can go watch it together spurring four to five ticket sales rather than two.  Having been so negative I should really say that as the movie goes it was ok, quite entertaining and plenty of humour for all to enjoy but I don’t feel there is anything even remotely scary about it. My letter to mojo’s categorisation department waits.

No 7.  The Conjuring  $318M
Finally a horror movie I can appreciate, this was a brilliant piece of work from our much loved and talented quill wiggling Hayes twins (Chad and Carey). Using a reported true haunting as the basis of their story, James Wan went on to direct a picture that redefined what we knew about atmospheric movies and conjured up (pun intended) frights in a very current haunting style horror.  Anyway, enough of me stroking Wan’s ego, let’s see why he is now a very popular director.

The Conjuring had a fantastic back story and Wan used one of the actual families involved in the incidence (the Perron family) to help with the production ensuring it was as accurate as possible. He was the founder of the Saw series writing the original movie and directing plenty of other top Hollywood Horrors, fans were eager to see the movie that was gathering hype as his most scary creation yet. Winning several awards at release including Empire Best Horror, marketing went into place showing trailers at some of the worlds biggest horror fan bases such as the 2012 New York Comic Con. When it was advertised as ‘a true story’, daytime TV spots wanted to interview the real life Perron family giving the movie free prime time exposure. The Perron family said on record that the movie that they had help to make was “as close to the real events that took place as possible”. I think the backstory and exposure was what helped the movie shoot to the top.

No 6.  Signs $408M
Not bad for a Writer / Director to have two movies on this list and one of them has had a serious knock-on effect to this one. M. Night Shyamalan should be equally proud of this movie starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix with a great storyline, with his already practiced surprise meaning at the end (keep reading) in this UFO, fly on the wall invasion film.  Capturing the fears of what it might be like if we had hostile visitors from outer space Shyamalan proves to us all again that less is more and you can get your point across without having to throw in blood and guts. Shyamalan forces you to care considerably about the characters stopping you from going anywhere until you have seen the ending. Brilliant acting, brilliant directing and sensational story. But I think that the popularity of his previous movie made people want to step into his audience again.

No 5.  The Exorcist $441M
Quoted as the scariest movie of all time using a now tried and tested genre of horror and religion, there is no explanation needed for why this movie has done so well.  I will however add something that was pointed out to me when I was reading The 10 Horror Movies You Would Totally Survive (Part Two) by Shaun Cordingley, there was only two people died in the whole movie. It wasn’t the gore or the violent death scenes that we have come to expect in today’s desensitized world that scared the pants off the audience, but the amazing collaboration of William Peter Blatty and William Friendkin. They managed to show what they believed pure evil looked like when in possession of a young girl. The audience swallowed the Williams’ vision hook line and sinker and still do nearly forty years on. I tip my hat to you fellas, but similarly hate you for making me sit with my sister to help her sleep for nights on end.

No 4.  Jaws $470M
We all know this is a masterpiece so I won’t go into too much detail. But I will say that Jaws is the most quoted movie of all time (We’re gonna need a bigger boat!) and I think this is a wink from other movie makers to the legend that is, Steven Spielberg. In 1975 when the film was released, I don’t think we knew just how huge this guy was going to be and Jaw was among the first in some of the greatest movies ever made. Spielberg went on to make so many of the world greatest that production companies fall at his feet and the guy has walked the red carpet more times than the history of the royal family. Excellently made, good cast, just the right amount of blood and one of the first good sea based horror movies. Need I say more?

No 3.  World War Z $540M
What a cheat! As much as I enjoyed Brad Pitt doing a slightly more risky movie as you don’t normally see Hollywood A-listers in the horror genre too often, I don’t feel it deserves a place ahead of Jaws and The Exorcist in this list and here’s why. It was directed by the guy that did Machine Gun Preacher and Monsters Ball but no horror experience and it resulted in an ok movie. The writer, Matthew Michael Carnahan is an military movie writer which is probably why it had a heavy presence in the film, however he did have help from Drew Goddard (Cabin in the Woods), good move. But again nothing to write home about. But what really put bums in seats that June was the massive $190 Million budget…What? Yes that’s right $190 Million!

So Basically they bought their way to the top, yes it was a good film and yes it is in IMDB’s top 500 movies and yes it has that bloke Pitt, but $190 Million? That’s 37th biggest movie cost of all time. Which is why it gets another award, the most expensive horror movie of all time. Interesting fact though, the bit in the film where they end up in the UK was filmed about 20 miles away from when I live in Kent, but we never find out about these things until it’s too late.

No 2.  I Am Legend $585M
Similar to the movie above, this film had an enormous budget of an estimated $150 Million, but there were a few things they got right. I am Legend was a phenomenal book written by Richard Matheson in 1954 which was a “Horror Novel”. It was later made into a movie called The Omega Man in 1971 starring the very popular Charles Heston (again quite a good movie but it was missing something). Work on a reinvention started in the late 90’s and my boy Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast to play the part of Robert Neville the star of the show, however they decided to wait as there were budget issues resulting from a mixture of unsuccessful movie releases by the proposed cast, production companies and writers. By the time the movie was finally released in 2007 with the extremely capable actor Will Smith there was a wealth of eager followers of the novel, Omega man and the new star. Was the hype of all these the key to its success?

No 1.  The Sixth Sense $672M
Well there you go, the highest grossing horror movie of all time is a Bruce Willis movie. With some jumpy scenes, and some heart wrenching sad scenes, this movie did have something for everyone, even the horror hating girlfriend gave a sigh at the end twist. Bruce and the boys absolutely nailed it, but what made it so successful other than a really good storyline? (As if that isn’t enough these days) With only a budget of 40 mils you can’t exactly say they had the marketing budget like movies that bought their way into the list such as World War Z. It only has a few top actors all be it one of them being up there with highest paid actors in the world, so we can’t say it was the star studded cast.

In my view, there are three reasons Shyamalan, Willis and the twist. I will break it down..

• Firstly M. Night Shyamalan is an amazing Writer and Director. He is now known for producing some really dark edgy movies with lots of hidden meaning which people love as well as bring an unpredictable twist to the end that keeps people guessing (We will come to that in a moment). He has made movies such as The Village, Unbreakable, Signs and Devil to name a few however these weren’t until after the release of The Sixth Sense so we can’t say he drove the money in purely with any following but just point out the fact that he did a great job with the film.
• Secondly Bruce Willis, you love him, your girlfriend loves him, your mom loves him and even your dog loves him. When they all heard he was in a new movie that was a bit scary, even the non-horror loving viewers would still watch his movie because “Its Brucey, how bad can it be?” He is a massively famous actor that always gets bums in seats.
• And finally the twist. When we found the surprise at the end of the movie what did we all do? We started to think back to the scenes previously to see if it all fit into place with our newly found understanding of the plot; the majority of us watched it again to see if it worked. This caused a huge reinvestment in the movie ticket for the people that wanted to see it again in the cinema and the people that could wait for it to come out on DVD to rent it. I don’t know if this was deliberate, but if it was it was genius.

Conclusion
So there you have it, the top grossing movies in the horror genre to date.  However I can’t help but feel disappointed with the movies that made their way to the list and would like to re-approach this subject with more clarity around what defines a Horror Movie and maybe take out titles such as Van Helsing. Furthermore, if you are as cynical as I, you might have already worked out that this method cannot be used as a real measurement of success and there are countless variables that should be considered. Such as, the cost of a ticket when the movie was released, inflation of the dollar and the rise and fall in the cinema goers over the years and how the introduction of VOD and mail order rentals played a part. A lot of these things can’t accurately be worked out but we can work out a way of considering inflation. So just for arguments sake I leave you with a list of the top five horror movies after inflation based on the price of a ticket at the release date.

1	Jaws	$1,043,842,400	1975
2	The Exorcist	$901,383,200	1973
3	Ghostbusters	$576,454,500	1984
4	The Sixth Sense	$469,269,900	1999
5	House of Wax	$411,835,100	1953

 

Interesting stuff…which list is more accurate? You tell me.