Horror movies are almost always profitable, but they rarely rank near the top of the year-end lists of the highest-grossing films of each year. Despite that, most horror movies can be made on the cheap and don't need as much to make a nice profit, allowing many horror films to receive countless sequels and spin-offs.
The 2000s is really where this saw a great contrast, as the decade started with some higher-budgeted films that made some great money and ending with one of the lowest-budgeted and highest-profiting movies ever made. Here is a look at the highest-grossing horror film for each year of the 2000s.
10 2000 - What Lies Beneath ($288 million)
In 2000, the highest-grossing horror movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis, the man previously known for masterpieces like Back to the Future and Forrest Gump. What Lies Beneath had a great cast, with Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford as a couple who lived in a haunted house.
With the cast and a known hit-maker like Zemeckis, the film ended up the 10th highest-grossing horror movie of 2000, making $288 million at the box office.
9 2001 - Hannibal ($350 million)
The highest-grossing horror movie of 2001 was one that made its money thanks to what came before. Hannibal saw Anthony Hopkins return to the role of Hannibal Lecter in a sequel to the 1991 Oscar-winning movie The Silence of the Lambs.
Directed by Ridley Scott, the movie replaced Jodie Foster with Julianne Moore in this film, but it was still a huge hit. The film ended up making $350 million worldwide, the tenth highest-grossing movie of the year.
8 2002 - Signs ($408 million)
In 2002, M. Night Shyamalan was still a marketable name. He had broken out years before with The Sixth Sense, and he made a cult-favorite after that with Unbreakable. Signs was the last horror movie Shyamalan made for over a decade that was considered a critical success.
The movie starred Mel Gibson as a father who tried to protect his family during an alien invasion. The film picked up $408 million worldwide, the second-highest-grossing film of the director's career, after only The Sixth Sense.
7 2003 - Gothika ($141 million)
Just because a movie makes a lot of money does not mean that people look back on it favorably. In 2003, the horror movies took a considerable drop in profit when Dark Castle released Gothika. The film had two stars in Robert Downey Jr. and Halle Berry, although Downey had not experienced his career resurgence yet.
The film has a terrible 15-percent rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is about a psychiatrist (Berry) in a mental hospital who was accused of murdering her husband and finds a ghost haunting her. The film topped the year for horror movies at only $141 million.
6 2004 - Van Helsing ($300 million)
Things picked back up for horror movies in 2004, but once again, it was a film that was not beloved by critics but made a lot of money. In this case, it was a movie called Van Helsing and starred Hugh Jackman as the legendary vampire hunter.
It was probably Jackman, who already impressed audiences as Wolverine, who sold this movie. The film, which brought out many Universal Monsters for him to fight, made $300 million worldwide.
5 2005 - War Of The Worlds ($606 million)
In 2005, a hybrid sci-fi-horror movie ended up as the fourth highest-grossing film of the year. That is mostly because Steven Spielberg directed the classic movie War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise as the top star.
This was an alien invasion movie that saw the aliens on Earth with giant tripods, and the human survivors who were trying to find any way to stay alive until forces could realistically fight back. The movie made $606 million worldwide.
4 2006 - Saw III ($163 million)
In 2004, Saw was an instant success. The low-budget horror movie was a critical success, and its worldwide box office totals equaled 86.6 times what the production budget was. The franchise was guaranteed, and the next two movies made more each time, before finally dropping off with Saw IV.
Saw III hit in 2006 and made a worldwide box office total of $163 million, the top-grossing horror movie of the year. The movie was the highest-grossing movie in the Saw franchise and is one of Lionsgate's highest-grossing films in the United States.
3 2007 - I Am Legend ($585 million)
I Am Legend was a success thanks to its leading man. Will Smith starred in the 2007 movie based on the 1954 horror novel by Richard Matheson. The film takes place in a world where vampires have already taken over.
Smith is a virologist who spends his days hunting down and killing vampires while spending his nights barricaded in his home as they show up and torment him. The film made $585 million worldwide.
2 2008 - The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor ($405 million)
The original Mummy movie was an enormous success, with Stephen Sommers as the director. However, it was followed up a lackluster sequel in The Mummy Returns and a spin-off in The Scorpion King, and the franchise looked dead.
However, it returned for the final movie in the trilogy in 2008, with Rob Cohen as director, and Brendan Fraser back as Rick O'Connell. The film was a domestic failure at just $102 million but was a worldwide success at $405 million.
1 2009 - Paranormal Activity ($194 million)
The 2000s ended with a massive success story. Blumhouse has mastered making low-budget horror movies and making a considerable profit from them. Paranormal Activity was made for just $15,000, although more money was added onto by Paramount with a new ending.
What resulted was a movie that made $194 million worldwide, which was 431-times the production budget, one of the most profitable films of all-time. This led to five sequels, with only one movie surpassing the profits from this first film.
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