On today’s episode of “Daily Variety” podcast, in our Box Office segment, Variety’s Rebecca Rubin explains why “Black Phone 2” made a connection with moviegoers, and she dissects the record tally for the horror genre at the box office this year. Business editor Todd Spangler offers a Q3 earnings preview on what to expect for Netflix, Comcast, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount.
“Black Phone 2” marked a rebound at the box office for Blumhouse, the prolific production banner that has scored with genre fare at a modest price point. The company had a few misfires earlier in the year with “Wolf Man” and “M3GAN 2.0,” the latter of which was a surprise given the sleeper success of the first outing of the synthetic villain in 2023’s “M3GAN.” Blumhouse has another at-bat at the B.O. in December with “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”
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Overall, it’s been a milestone year for the genre, which has the element that exhibitors seek most in theatrical films — a built-in reason to leave the house for the experience of getting scared with a crowd in a darkened room.
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“Horror films at this point in 2025 have generated $1.2 billion, and that is a record for the genre,” Rubin says. “It broke a record that was set back in 2017 with $1.16 billion dollars. It’s really showing what strength this genre has theatrically and why people when they are choosing to go to theaters want to be in a communal setting to watch this kind of film.”
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