The New York Times reports that thanks to big horror hits like Get Out and It, 2017 has been the biggest box office year in history for horror movies. In all, the genre brought in $733 million in ticket sales.
Get Out and It are the two most profitable, making $175 million and $300 million respectively and since so many horror movies are released in October, the numbers are expected to rise.
While this is the biggest year in history for horror, it should be noted that this genre has always been making money over the years.
— Jordan Peele, Spike Lee team up for KKK thriller ‘Black Klansman’ —
Mekado Murphy at the Times used data from Box Office Mojo to find out what the best years were for horror in terms of money made. Looking at the last four decades showed the year horror movies make the most profits seems to coincide with that decade’s most successful horror movie.
For example, the biggest year for horror in the 70’s was 1973 when The Exorcist was released in theaters. In the 2000’s the Saw films began to be released and that decade had its highest grossing year in 2000 when it made $616.7 million at the box office.
There are still a couple of years left in this decade so we could see a year in which even more profits are made.
Both It and Get Out have broken records in their own right. It is the first horror to make $300 million at the box office. In fact, it’s the highest grossing domestic horror movie of all time. Get Out had a small budget and as such is the most profitable movie of the year.