Horror Is Hollywood’s Hottest Movie Genre These Days

Universal Pictures’ Other Mommy came in tops at the domestic box office this weekend. (Getty Images)

Key Points

• Universal Pictures’ horror movie Other Mommy topped the weekend box office with an estimated $27.5 million in North American ticket sales.
• Other Mommy is the sixth horror or horror-comedy film to open at No. 1 domestically this year, according to Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian.
• Horror movies have generated about $1.28 billion domestically this year, which is 90% of last year’s record of $1.426 billion.

Audiences can’t get enough of movies that scare them out of their seats.

This weekend, Other Mommy, Universal Pictures’ horror movie about a sinister entity that emerges from an 8-year-old girl’s closet to threaten her and her family, topped the weekend box office with an estimated $27.5 million in ticket sales its North American debut, or nearly a third of the weekend’s estimated $85.2 million. Other Mommy, starring Jessica Chastain and Arabella Olivia Clark, sold $45.2 million worldwide.

Horror is one of the biggest box office stories of the year, according to Rentrak’s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian. “Other Mommy marks the sixth horror or horror-comedy film to open at No. one domestically this year,” he noted, with Send Help, Scream 7, Backrooms, Scary Movie, and Resident Evil rounding out the list.

The year to date domestic box office sales through Sunday is at an estimated $8.07 billion, or 19.6% higher than last year’s $6.75 billion through Oct. 11, according to Rentrak. The domestic box office crossed the $8 billion mark on Friday, as projected, 59 days earlier than in 2025. With this year’s record summer movie season of $4.77 billion, and the holiday moviegoing season still to come, Dergarabedian sees the potential to hit $9 billion in ticket sales for the industry.

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The horror genre has helped play a part in that. “Horror movies have generated approximately $1.28 billion domestically this year,” already 90% of last year’s record $1.426 billion and “roughly $150 million away from another record, with 81 days remaining in 2026,” Dergarabedian said.

Upcoming horror films include: Crawlers (Oct. 16), Clayface (Oct. 23), Christmas at the Kringles (Oct. 30), Victorian Psycho (Nov. 13), and Werwulf (Dec. 25), making another record-breaking year for horror “a very real possibility,” he said.

Amazon MGM’s Verity, an R-rated psychological thriller starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, took second place at the domestic box office this weekend with an estimated $11.5 million in ticket sales in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $53.9 million, according to Rentrak.

Sony’s Columbia Pictures’ Resident Evil, a horror movie about a hapless courier fighting mutant creatures to deliver a package to a remote hospital, sold nearly $8.4 million in its fourth weekend, bringing its domestic total to $138.5 million. The movie, directed by Zach Cregger and starring Austin Abrams, is based on a popular videogame.

Sony Pictures’ The Social Reckoning, the biographic thriller about Facebook engineer Frances Haugen divulging the social network’s most guarded secrets with the help of then-Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz, opened with an underwhelming $5.5 million.

The Social Reckoning came in fifth place, after Paramount Pictures’ Heart of the Beast, an action adventure starring Brad Pitt as a Special Forces veteran fighting to survive in the Alaskan wilderness with his combat dog. Heart of the Beast sold an estimated $7.1 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $49.7 million.

Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com

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