The movie-making business is full of risks but horror is the only genre where movies are made for a low budget but earn an incredible amount of money in theaters. Horror movies are almost always profitable for the studios because recovering their small budget is incredibly easy and it also has a high probability of making a profit. That’s why CinemaBlind has decided to rank the 10 highest-grossing horror movies ever.
10. The Omen ($257.7 Million)
Synopsis: When his child is stillborn, an American diplomat (Academy Award® Winner Gregory Peck*) is convinced to exchange the dead baby for a living one, in order to spare his wife’s feelings. But as the child grows, a series of gruesome “accidental” murders begins to occur, and the horrifying identity of the child becomes clear in this timeless, bone-chilling thriller set to Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar®-Winning Original Score.
9. What Lies Beneath ($259.9 Million)
Synopsis: In this exciting supernatural thriller, Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer play a seemingly happily married couple who uncover a terrible secret…a secret so disturbing it threatens to destroy them. When Claire Spencer begins seeing ghostly images and hearing mysterious voices in their home, her husband Norman suspects it’s just her imagination – until the images turn real. Now, together they must uncover the truth, confront their worst fears and find “what lies beneath”…with twisting and terrifying results.
8. Alien ($286.4 Million)
Synopsis: The time is the future. The crew aboard a massive, commercial space vehicle is en-route to earth with a load of extraterrestrial ore when they are sidetracked by mysterious signals from a nearby planet. The signals seem to be calls for help and when the space ship arrives they find a ruined, moldering spacecraft and within it egg-like living organisms.
7. The Amityville Horror ($310.3 Million)
Synopsis: Newlyweds and their three children move into a large house where a mass murder was committed. They start to experience strange, inexplicable manifestations which have strong effects on everyone living in or visiting the house.
6. Jaws 2 ($312.8 Million)
Synopsis: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… Jaws 2 surfaces from the deep with even more terror and suspense! The resort town of Amity is still recovering from the events of Jaws four years earlier when Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) receives disturbing news of fresh attacks. As Brody tries to convince the locals of the nearby threat, his own teen son ignores the warnings and braves the waters with a group of naive friends. From Academy Award®-winning producer Richard D. Zanuck (Deep Impact, Planet of the Apes) comes this terrifying second chapter of the film franchise that continues to keep audiences out of the ocean.
5. It ($328.9 Million)
Synopsis: The horror thriller “IT”, directed by Andrés Muschietti (“Mama”), is based on the hugely popular Stephen King novel of the same name, which has been terrifying readers for decades. When children begin to disappear in the town of Derry, Maine, a group of young kids is faced with their biggest fears when they square off against an evil clown named Pennywise, whose history of murder and violence dates back for centuries.
4. Gremlins ($409.8 Million)
Synopsis: With its Christmas lights and dusting of snow, Kingston Falls is an idyllic small town–until the gremlins take over. A father returns from Chinatown with an unusual pet, a Mogwai–a gift for his son. The rules are simple: Keep your Mogwai away from water, bright lights and, most importantly, never–never–feed him after midnight. But the rules are inadvertently broken, and the consequences multiply at an alarming rate.
3. The Sixth Sense ($518.8 Million)
Synopsis: Hollywood superstar Bruce Willis (Armageddon, Unbreakable) brings a powerful presence to an edge-of-your-seat supernatural thriller that critics have called one of the best films in recent times. Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Willis) is a distinguished child psychologist haunted by the painful memory of a disturbed young patient he was unable to help. So when he meets Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment — Artificial Intelligence)… a frightened, confused eight-year-old with a similar condition… Dr. Crowe seeks to redeem himself by doing everything he can. Nonetheless, Malcolm is unprepared to learn the truth of what haunts Cole: terrifying, unwanted visits from the restless inhabitants of the spirit world. With a riveting intensity you’ll find thoroughly chilling and utterly unforgettable, the discovery of Cole’s incredible 6th sense leads them both to mysterious and unforeseeable consequences.
2. The Exorcist ($996.5 Million)
Synopsis: William Friedkin directs one of the most horrifying movies ever made. When a charming 12-year-old girl takes on the characteristics and voices of others, doctors say there is nothing they can do. As people begin to die, the girl’s mother realizes her daughter has been possessed by the devil–and that her daughter’s only possible hope lies with two priests and the ancient rite of demonic exorcism.
1. Jaws ($1.154 Billion)
Synopsis: Directed by Academy Award® winner Steven Spielberg, Jaws set the standard for edge-of-your-seat suspense, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon and forever changing the movie industry. When the seaside community of Amity finds itself under attack by a dangerous great white shark, the town’s chief of police (Roy Scheider), a young marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a grizzled shark hunter (Robert Shaw) embark on a desperate quest to destroy the beast before it strikes again. Featuring an unforgettable score that evokes pure terror, Jaws remains one of the most influential and gripping adventures in motion picture history.
