ABSTRACT
Horror movies have been money-makers for studios, from the beginning. Following the success of The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Universal had a string of hits in the early 1930s, including Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy. A recognizable genre took shape; and the horror movie – though often dismissed by critics – became a sound investment. Horror movies are, in general, cheaper to make than ‘prestige’ pictures. So they have a better chance of breaking even (at least), and – with talent and luck – making a profit. To give a modern (extreme) example, 2009’s Paranormal Activity cost $15,000 and has grossed, world-wide and domestically, $194,000,000 (for a 13,000 percent return on investment!).
A new business model – perfected by Marvel – is the ‘universe’ of films that share common characters and ‘mythology’. This model has given us the Conjuring films, whose most recent spin-off, The Nun (2018), got mediocre reviews but did phenomenal box-office. More encouraging is the success of films like Hereditary and Get Out, which are both terrifying and thought-provoking. (Get Out, in fact, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.) Both Paranormal Activity and Get Out were produced by Jason Blum, who champions good writing: “The scares don’t work if the story and characters don’t work.”
