I’ve been saying this for a few years now, but the box-office success of many mid-budget horror movies will translate into plenty more getting greenlit in the future. It’s a no-brainer decision for studio heads looking for a quick buck.
Hollywood has taken note of highly successful titles such as “Smile,” “M3Gan,” “Talk to Me,” “Evil Dead Rise,” “Terrifier 2,” “Halloween Ends,” “The Black Phone,” and “Barbarian.”
All of these were made for chump money and ended up being immense financial successes for their respective studios. Case in point, the most recent example, “The Nun 2” which has surpassed the $200 million mark at the worldwide box-office, it has a measly budget of $38 million.
The reviews for ‘Nun 2’ were very average, but that doesn’t seem to have mattered for the average moviegoer. Going to see a horror film, in a packed house, with hundreds of shrieking fans in one room, is an event in of itself. That’s what it comes down to, the communal experience.