Scary Good Returns: The 5 Most Profitable Horror Movies Ever Made

For consumer businesses, Halloween is anything but scary. As the holiday grows ever more popular (it’s commonly cited as the Americans’ second favorite holiday, behind only Christmas), more and more people are heading to shops to get themselves in the Halloween mood.

Ostensibly, retailers selling costumes, party-essentials suppliers, and candy makers rake in the most cash, but movie studios have also done gangbuster business with horror movies -- we love ourselves a good scare on Halloween.

The great thing about the horror genre for movie studios is that you don’t require big-name stars or elaborate special effects to scare people -- sometimes all it takes is a $1,500 camera and the successful creation of a creepy atmosphere, and you will have yourself an international box office success story.

In honor of Halloween, here are five of the most profitable horror movies ever made:
 
 Paranormal Activity



Budget: $15,000
Worldwide box office: $197 million
Return on investment: 655,506%

Released a month before Halloween in 2009, Paranormal Activity is a great example of the aphorism: “Your imagination is scarier than anything filmmakers can conjure up.” In the film, a couple sets up a video camera in their house to record whatever might be haunting them. We don’t ever see a ghost or a demon, but the film managed to scare up $108 million domestically and $197 million worldwide. Amazingly, the film’s budget was $15,000, so its return on investment was around 655,506%.

Of course, with this type of out-of-the-world numbers, Paramount Pictures and parent company Viacom (VIA) rushed to green light sequels. Paranormal Activity 2 opened a year later and grossed $178 million off of a $3 million budget. And last week, Paranormal Activity 3, made for $5 million, opened to a record-breaking $52 million, and has already scared up $85 million so far. No doubt the only thing that has spooked film executives these past few Halloweens was the expectation of a big tax on their fat bonuses.


The Blair Witch Project



Budget: $600,000
Worldwide box office: $249 million
Return on investment: 22,615%

The Blair Witch Project is the granddaddy of the Paranormal Activity-styled “found footage” sub-genre, where characters in a film record their actions with a camera that is later "discovered." When it opened in 1999, it induced nausea in many movie-goers because of its abundance of "shaky-cam" shots (because the characters holding the video camera are running). That apparently didn’t turn audiences off, because the movie earned an astounding $140 million here and $249 million worldwide. Given the movie’s $600,000 budget, that’s a 22,615% profit.

Unfortunately for distributor Artisan, which was later acquired by Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF), the sequel that came a year later, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, disappointed with a total worldwide gross of $48 million.

 Halloween



Budget: $325,000
Worldwide box office: $70 million
Return on investment: 10,669%

Halloween? More like hallelujah. Today, with Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers is probably one of the most iconic horror figures in the world, which explains the success of the Halloween franchise. Together, the 10 films in the series have grossed some $308 million. The Jamie Lee Curtis original of 1978 remains the most profitable, with global box office amounting to $70 million. With a $325,000 budget, that’s a 10,669% profit. The next nine sequels all faced the problem of diminishing returns though, so clearly it’s time to give the tired franchise a rest.

Friday the 13th



Budget: $550,000
Worldwide box office: $60 million
Return on investment: 5,332%

For people outside of North America, a hockey mask is probably more closely associated with the signature look of Jason Voorhees than it is with the NHL. The original Friday the 13 grossed $60 million from a $550,000 budget, returning Paramount and Viacom 5,332% of their investment. Sequels came calling of course, with 11 so far. The series is still alive and well, with the latest edition, a series reboot, opening in 2009. New Line and Time Warner (TWX) now own the lucrative franchise, and we can expect Jason’s body count to continue increasing for many Halloweens to come.   

Saw



Budget: $1.2 million
Worldwide box office: $103 million
Return on investment: 4,195%

Thanks to the success of the constantly upping-the-ante gross-out Saw franchise, “torture porn” is now a household term and decapitation, stabbing or other previously horrific on-screen killing methods is met with a collective “That’s it?” shrug from an increasingly desensitized audience. With only seven movies, the Saw series has earned $873 million worldwide for Lions Gate -- that’s nearing Twilight/Harry Potter territory. Made with only $1.2 million, the original Saw, which was released the Halloween weekend of 2004, grossed $103 million around the world, for a 4,195% profit. What does it say about us that Saw has become the definitive American horror franchise for the new millennium?