Posted in: Box Office, Horror, Movies | Tagged: January Box Office, M3GAN, scream

January Is Yet Another Month Where Horror Makes Money, Hollywood

January has been known as a dumping ground for Hollywood for decades. Part of that dumping ground is horror films, which, even though it has been proven time and time again, are immune to downward trends in the business and the surest thing there is at the box office. Taking 2021 out of the picture because that was still a very depressed Covid box office, most Januarys have featured at least one breakout horror film at the box office. With M3gan set to do it again this weekend, why do we still listen to those that claim January sucks at the box office?

January & February Are Fine Times To Open Films Now

Here are many examples of successful January horror releases in the last few years:

2022: Scream- Budget $24 million, Grossed $140 million
2020: The Grudge- Budget $10-14 million, Grossed $49.5 million
2019: Glass- Budget $20 million, Grossed $247 million
2019: Escape Room- Budget $9 million, Grossed $155.7 million
2018: Insidious: The Last Key- Budget $10 million, Grossed $167.9 million
2017: Split- Budget $9 million, Grossed $278.5 million
2017: Underworld: Blood Wars Budget $35 million Grossed $81 million
2016: The Boy Budget $10 million, Grossed $64.2 million

And it is not just horror! Other successful films at the box office with January launches include Bad Boys For Life, Kung Fu Panda 3, The Gentleman, Dirty Grampa, and about 4,000 examples of awards contenders that opened wide and made bank in both January and February. Say what you want about the quality of these films, and that is where the stigma probably actually comes from, but to say that all of them would be considered terrible is a stretch, and not a single example given up there from the horror/thriller genre failed to double their budget at least.

Making money is the ultimate goal of Hollywood, of course, and the fact of the matter is that while yes, there are a lot of what you may consider "bad" films get released at the beginning of the year, the audiences will show up in those months, weather be damned. Looking at the release schedule for 2023 for January makes it look like they punted on this month as theaters continue to beg studios for releases. They get things going in February with Knock At The Cabin, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Magic Mike's Last Dance, and Cocaine Bear, but moving even one of those too, let's say January 20th, could have led to a couple of weeks of big money. Maybe in 2024, they will learn.

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