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Home Movies Hollywood.com’s Top 25 Highest Grossing Domestic Horror Films of All Time

Hollywood.com’s Top 25 Highest Grossing Domestic Horror Films of All Time


By Hollywood.com Staff

The Ring
Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) makes a horrifying discovery in "The Ring"
Horror movies do something to us. Besides providing the best escapism film can offer, they scare up the box office dough.

Horrors stir us up, leave us with the post-movie chills and give us something to tell our friends about. And although the grim truth the genre faces is only the strongest survive, those relative few usually have thrilling box-office runs--and sometimes become huge hits.

With Halloween lurking around the corner like Micheal Myers, we’ve compiled a list of the 25 most popular horror movies of all time--and the results will flat-out scare the heebie-jeebies out of any thrill-seeking moviegoer.

On a less frightening note: We’ve adjusted all movies’ earnings to current day ticket prices to see how they would truly stack up against one another, an oft-neglected yet vital factor in comparing box-office numbers across multiple years. Enjoy…if you dare.

Rank Title Studio Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office1 Gross Domestic Box Office
1 Jaws (1975) UNIVERSAL $795,369,426 $260,000,000
2 The Exorcist (1973) WARNER BROS $686,631,452 $232,671,011
3 The Sixth Sense (1999) BUENA VISTA $357,566,366 $293,506,292
4 The Mummy Returns (2001) UNIVERSAL $221,650,716 $202,019,785
5 Jaws 2 (1978) UNIVERSAL $215,603,340 $81,766,007
6 The Amityville Horror (1979) AMERICAN INT. $213,841,738 $86,432,000
7 Alien (1979) FOX $200,233,659 $80,931,801
8 The Mummy (1999) UNIVERSAL $189,949,583 $155,385,488
9 What Lies Beneath (2000) DREAMWORKS $179,115,699 $155,464,351
10 The Omen (1976) FOX $177,620,519 $60,922,980
11 The Blair Witch Project (1999) ARTISAN $171,800,749 $140,539,099
12 Interview with the Vampire (1994) WARNER $155,538,215 $104,694,000
13 Scream (1996) MIRAMAX $144,714,476 $103,001,286
14 Seven (1995) NEW LINE $142,937,987 $100,125,643
15 Aliens (1986) FOX $142,545,860 $85,160,248
16 The Ring (2002) DREAMWORKS $137,432,001 $128,579,698
17 Scream 2 (1997) MIRAMAX $137,017,261 $101,273,628
18 Halloween (1978) COMPASS $124,730,769 $47,000,000
19 Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) SONY $123,601,446 $82,600,000
20 Sleepy Hollow (1999) PARAMOUNT $123,550,077 $101,068,340
21 Van Helsing (2005) UNIVERSAL $120,177,084 $120,177,084
22 Haunting (1999) DREAMWORKS $111,473,051 $91,188,905
23 The Grudge (2004) SONY $110,175,871 $110,175,871
24 The Others (2001) DIMENSION $105,846,318 $96,471,845
25 Scream 3 (2000) DIMENSION $102,704,845 $89,143,175
  TOTALS: $5,191,828,508 $3,110,298,537


In addition, we conducted a search of the highest grossing films that bridged the horror and comedy genres. Below are the top six in this hybrid category:

Title Studio Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office1 Gross Domestic Box Office
Ghostbusters (1984) SONY $439,237,084 $238,632,124
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) FOX $341,981,110 $112,892,319
Young Frankenstein (1974) FOX $283,469,520 $86,273,333
Scary Movie (2000) MIRAMAX $180,907,751 $157,019,771
Ghostbusters II (1989) SONY $175,967,840 $112,494,738
Scary Movie 3 (2003) DIMENSION $113,286,895 $110,003,217
  TOTALS: $1,534,850,200 $817,315,502
1 Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office figures are derived based on the total domestic gross of the film, divided by average ticket price in the year of release, multiplied by 2004 average ticket price ($6.21). Average annual ticket prices source: MPAA.

Photo(s) by Hollywood.com- © 2002- Dreamworks S.K.G- All Rights Reserved

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