There are two holidays that are usually the peak times when movies are released or rewatched: Christmas and Halloween. The fall and early winter seasons are arguably the most profitable time for the movie industry and typically give us some of the most well-known and beloved movies in history. Halloween as a holiday is linked to all things scary, creepy and sometimes cute, which mostly depends on how many kids are around you. Most importantly, unsurprisingly, it’s linked to horror movies, and while Christmas movies are easier to spot (unless you consider die hard a Christmas movie), what exactly makes a Halloween movie is more nuanced.
Horror has become an extremely successful genre in the film industry that can produce wildly successful franchises and develop cult followings. They provide high returns for studios, especially when you consider how little it usually takes to make them. People just like to be scared, and it’s much more than just for fun. One psychological theory, Excitation Transfer Theory, explains that it stimulates increased levels of arousal (via Very good spirit).
But are all horror movies Halloween movies? They both pursue the same goal and rely on the Excitation Transfer Theory. But there is a small group of horror movies that take place around other major holidays, such as Christmas, which may make them more Christmas movies. This leads to the argument that if the movie is set during Halloween, it is indeed a Halloween movie, but that eliminates some of the best movies to watch around the fall break, such as The Nightmare before Christmas. So in making the list of the highest-grossing Halloween movies, we took into account only one important factor: if the movie, horror or otherwise, had been released in the fall before Halloween, it would have been released with the intention of 31 to see in October. Without further ado, these are the highest-grossing Halloween movies of all time.
Honorable Mentions
There are, of course, some movies that we can’t ignore just because we chose to only list movies that were released during the Halloween season. Not only did these three movies make the big bucks, but they also provide a fun watch for the haunted times of the years: Ghostbusters ($295.2 million), the incantation ($319.5 million), and the exorcist ($441.3 million).
7/7 Halloween (2018) – $255.6 million
It wouldn’t be Halloween without the cult classic slasher movie Halloween, featuring the scream queen herself Jamie Lee Curtis. The original film, directed by John Carpenter, was released in 1978, but didn’t get this sequel of the same name until 40 years later in 2018. The film was made at only about $15 million and grossed a total of $255.6 million. office, effectively marking Blumhouse Productions’ biggest debut and highest-grossing film overall Halloween franchisee.
6/7 Annabelle – $257.6 million
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The Annabelle doll has been giving people the creeps since it first appeared in 2013 the incantationbut after its success, a movie was made in 2014 that would focus solely on the cursed Annabelle doll. The film and doll are based on an actual doll believed to be possessed by a demon famously at the Warren Occult Museum in a suitcase that read “Do not touch”, until 2019 when the museum was permanently closed. The real Annabelle doll is just a ragged Anne doll that looks normal, the movie did a good job of treating the terrifying audience of dolls in the same way Child’s play ever did. Annabelle grossed over $250 million dollars at the box office and had the biggest opening weekend for a horror film in 2014.
5/7 Hotel Transylvania — $358.4 million
Not every Halloween movie has to be scary, and there should be movies that parents can take their kids with during the Halloween season. And when one of the best Halloween kids movies, Hotel Transylvania, was released, it succeeded more than anyone at Sony Pictures Animation could have imagined for the film. The film, starring Adam Sandler and Selena Gomez, grossed more than $40 million domestically on its opening weekend, making it the highest-grossing debut for Sony Pictures, a record it would hold until the release of the sequel. Ultimately, the film grossed $358.4 million at the box office.
4/7 The Nun — $365.6 million
the nun was released as the fifth installment of the conjure universe and prequel to The incantation 2 in 2018. With a budget of just $22 million, the film was expected to gross about $32-37 million on its opening weekend, but grossed $22 million on its first day, the highest for all. conjure movie. By the end of its opening weekend, the film grossed over $53 million and eventually grossed $365.6 million worldwide.
3/7 It: Chapter 2 — $473.1M
The second and last part of Itarguably Stephen King’s most famous work, was released in 2019 as It: Chapter 2. The film would gross between $90-100 million during its opening weekend, but barely live up to expectations at over $91 million. The blame for the short-lived film was given to mixed reviews and the film’s long running time (nearly three hours). Even still, the film still had the fifth highest opening weekend for an R-rated film, grossing $473.1 million in total.
2/7 Hotel Transylvania 2 – $478.8 million
Hotel Transylvania 2, like its predecessor, surpassed original predictions for the film’s opening weekend in 2015. Additionally, it became Sony Picture Animation’s highest-grossing film in the world, grossing $478.8 million at the box office. That’s quite an achievement when you consider that most sequels rarely match, let alone surpass, the original. The film would hold the record until 2018, when it was beaten by, again, its own sequel (which was not released during the Halloween season).
1/7 It — $701.8M
Finally, the highest-grossing Halloween movie is none other than It, the first film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 book of the same name. The film was released in 2017, but the book also had a widely known miniseries adaptation in 1990, starring Tim Curry as the infamous Pennywise. The film adaptation grossed a staggering $701.8 million worldwide and became the biggest theatrical debut in horror film history, the highest-grossing horror film in uncorrected worldwide gross, and the largest opening for an R-rated horror film. It placed fifth on Deadline Hollywood’s list of 2017’s Most Valuable Blockbusters. To date, It is the highest-grossing Stephen King film ever worldwide, but it should be noted that the film could have had an even bigger opening had it not been for Hurricane Irma.