Horror Box Office Hits That Have Caught Us By Surprise In 2023

If 2022 taught us anything, it's that horror is about as sure of a bet as studios can invest in right now. That's not to say every single horror movie that gets made will make a lot of money, but given that they can often be made on the cheap, the rewards can be large if you tap into the right idea. Just look at what happened with "M3GAN" earlier this year, or the fact that "Smile" was one the biggest original movies of any kind last year. Horror is hot right now.

2023 has had its share of genre films enter the fold, and it's been a mixed bag. We've had high-profile flops such as "Renfield," as well as absolutely huge franchise hits like "Scream VI." But there are a small handful of horror movies that have come our way this year that genuinely surprised us with their levels of success. From turning a childhood icon into a bloodthirsty killer to an Oscar-winner performing exorcisms, here are the horror movie hits that surprised us the most so far as we reach the halfway point of 2023. Let's get into it.

Admittedly, an established horror franchise returning to theaters after a decade away can, in many cases, feel like a recipe for success. "Evil Dead Rise" certainly seemed like a movie many would have expected to perform well. However, let us not forget that this film was originally supposed to be released on HBO Max and is the first in the series to truly leave the past behind in favor of an entirely new setting and an entirely new cast of characters. There was no guarantee audiences would turn up. But they did, and they turned up in droves to see director Lee Cronin's vision for the future of the classic series.

Against a big city backdrop with no-holds-barred gore, "Evil Dead Rise" was met with open arms from both critics and audiences alike, propelling the movie to a wildly successful $24.5 million opening weekend, losing only to "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," which is almost certainly going to finish 2023 as (by far) the highest-grossing movie of the year. The film held extremely well in the coming weeks and pulled in a stellar $146.5 million worldwide. For comparison's sake, 2013's "Evil Dead" remake pulled in a very good $97.5 million worldwide against a similar $17 million budget. The fact that Cronin's film earned nearly $50 million more is amazing. Sure, there was a presumed level of success here, but this was well beyond anyone's most optimistic expectations.

When "The Pope's Exorcist" was announced, with Oscar winner Russell Crowe on board in the lead role, it almost seemed like a fake movie that could have played in front of "Tropic Thunder" or something of that kind. But it was a very real Hollywood movie produced by Sony Pictures, no less. And for Sony, the rewards were equally real. Director Julius Avery's exorcism flick performed far better than anyone expected, and it even managed to top the flashier, more expensive "Renfield" on its opening weekend.

The key thing here is that Sony didn't overspend on the film, as it carried a very reasonable $18 million budget in a genre that has worked plenty of times over the years, most notably with "The Exorcist." All told, Crowe's trip to the supernatural horror genre pulled in $20 million domestically but a far more impressive $54.7 million internationally for a grand total of $74.7 million. What's more, as of this writing, the film still has to open in Japan, meaning it could finish much closer to $80 million. That's a rate of return any studio would be thrilled with, which is precisely why a sequel is already in development.

Major movie studios have tried many, many times to buy the kind of press that "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" gained naturally last year. Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield capitalized on the fact that A.A. Milne's beloved literary creation recently entered the public domain by producing an ultra-cheap, down-and-dirty slasher film starring the honey-loving bear. When the first pictures surfaced online, the internet went absolutely apes***. Online chatter doesn't always equate to financial success, but in this case, Drake-Waterfield and his financial partners found themselves on the right side of a big hit — even in the face of downright scathing reviews from critics (read our 1 out of 10 review here).

Curiosity from moviegoers rewarded the low-budget flick, which ended up making just shy of $5 million at the box office. Let's be clear, that's a tiny number that would represent a disaster for any studio movie. But this was never supposed to be anything more than a Redbox play/direct-to-VOD schlock. Produced for less than $100,000, this movie made out incredibly well. Especially because all of the attention the relative success garnered in the press only served to benefit the movie once it did arrive on VOD. A sequel is being rushed to capitalize on the success because that's just the nature of the beast. Say what you will about the film itself, but it's pretty surprising that this, in a very odd way, turned out to be one of the little films that could in 2023. It's only rivaled by one other movie that we're about to talk about.

Impressive though it may be, "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey" had the hook of taking a beloved character from many people's childhoods and turning him into a slasher villain. That's going to turn some heads. Director Kyle Edward Ball, on the other hand, had a mere $15,000 and an idea to work with in crafting his ultra-low-budget sensation "Skinamarink," which absolutely dominated the conversation in January when the film came out of nowhere to take the horror world by storm. With virtually no marketing money to speak of, Ball's deeply terrifying, experimental film scared the s*** out of tons of people and became a true world-of-mouth sensation.

Again, we're talking about a movie that made just $2.1 million at the box office, which is, for most movies, not even a drop in the bucket. But against a budget that equates to a small percentage of change lost in the couch cushions for a major studio, what Ball was able to do is nothing short of remarkable. The amount of ink that was spilled after "Skinamarkink" started filling theaters due to genuine online buzz was beyond impressive. That couple million dollars was only the beginning, as the movie also made its way to Shudder and had a big life on streaming. Moreover, Ball now has a career and will assuredly be getting a lot more money to make his next film, which will automatically have the eyes of the horror-loving world on it.

This is the single most feel-good success story in cinema this year. Nobody saw it coming and, much like Kevin Smith's "Clerks" or Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi," it enters the pantheon of low-budget films that prove to aspiring filmmakers around the world that a hit can be made with very little resources.