NEW YORK – Finding dependable, bankable box-office hits for anything without a superhero has been a downright scary proposition for Hollywood.
The solution, it turns out, is a nightmare, too.
Horror has emerged as one of the most lucrative and in-demand genres in Hollywood, a box-office success story as well as – thanks to a new generation of ambitious genre filmmakers – a creative one. Like perhaps never before, horror is hot. For an industry that has struggled to find areas of growth outside the pages of comic books, it’s now hailing slashers as saviors.
“Right now it’s pretty obvious what audiences want,” says Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. “People want their horror fast and cheap. And that should be music to the ears of studios.”
It certainly was to Paramount Pictures – the most hit-starved of the major studios – when John Krasinski’s “A Quiet Place” last weekend blew away expectations to debut with $50.2 million. Despite costing only $17 million to make, the expertly sound-designed suspense film may pass $100 million over this weekend.