Scary Profits: How Horror Movies Are Dominating the 2025 Box Office

This year has seen horror films not just scaring audiences, but also delivering serious return on investment. Take Weapons (2025) for example: made for around $38 million in production, it has grossed about $260.9 million worldwide ($148.3m domestic + $112.6m international). That’s nearly 7× its budget. Opening weekend alone brought in $43.5 million domestically, showing a strong start.

Another big success is The Conjuring: Last Rites (The Conjuring 4). Its budget was about $55 million, while it has pulled in roughly $356.7 million worldwide ($136.7 million in the U.S. & Canada and $220 million elsewhere) as of mid-September. That’s a solid 6×-plus return and it marked one of the biggest openings in the horror genre for 2025.

To highlight how much profit even small horror films can make, consider Heretic. It was made on a budget of around $10 million. It has earned about $59 million worldwide so far. That’s more than 5 × its budget, despite being a relatively “quiet” release compared to big franchise titles. Its strong reviews and solid opening (about $11 million domestically) helped it perform well.

These examples aren’t isolated cases. Horror as a genre is having a stellar year: when you compare the risk vs. reward, lower-to-moderate budget films are often able to generate huge profits if they hit the right tone, capture audience interest and don’t overspend. Weapons, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Heretic and other hits show that you don’t need a $100 million+ budget to do big business — sometimes cleverness, atmosphere, good marketing and a niche that fans want are enough to deliver strong box office payoffs.

In short: horror movies continue to punch above their weight. With budgets much lower than typical tentpole action or superhero films, they are delivering huge box office numbers when done well. For studios, that means lower risk and higher reward — especially for original properties. The success of Weapons, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Heretic and others makes clear that audiences are eager to go to the cinema for a good scare.