Why Are Horror Movies So Popular Now?

Dopamine and other reasons for the smashing success of Horror Films

Jordan Peele’s “Us” had the biggest opening ever for an original horror film, second only to a Marvel movie in 2019. Of course, this sort of news shouldn’t surprise us anymore. Hollywood horror is having a renaissance right now. In the past few years, we’ve seen films like ‘The Witch’, ‘Hereditary’, and ‘Get Out’ all redefine the genre for modern audiences and bring prestige back to horror. There are likely many reasons for this, but I think that a few are worth exploring in detail.

Reason 1 — There’s Money to be Made

The most obvious reason for the staggering success of horror is rooted in Hollywood economics. It’s not just films like ‘Us’ and ‘Get Out’ that kill it at the box office. Horror films in general have turned out to be great investments.

Last year I researched movies that had the best rates of return — that is movies with the highest box office gross divided by film budget. When looking at this measure of profitability, the biggest winners were mostly horror movies.