Horror films go so that blockbusters can run. And now one more, Insidious: The Red Doorpromotes this platitude.

Currently at 182 million USD globally, The Red Door became the highest-grossing horror film of 2023, dethroning this year’s other living doll, M3GAN (over $179 million globally) from the top spot in the horror film. [Note: M3GAN is listed as a 2022 release on Box Office Mojo, even though it was released widely in January 2023]

Horror movies save the cinema again

It wasn’t that long ago that people were holed up in their homes trying to figure out how or when the world would recover from the pandemic. The entertainment industry was on the mend, and cinemas took the brunt of the damage. But The invisible Man (2020) changed everything as it was turbo-released for digital home a few weeks after its theatrical release. Because it was so successful (grossing over $70 million), it made way for home theater entertainment.

Fast forward six months to August 2020 and Unbalanced, starring Russell Crowe, landed big-screen bookings, perhaps to test the waters of a wary resurgent audience, and pulled in $20 million. Note that it was one of the first major theatrical releases post-pandemic: people were still afraid to cough in public.

Post-pandemic passthrough

That brings us to 2023, when people have thrown away most of their face masks, started sitting next to each other again, CVS has plenty of hand sanitizer, and people are wondering: Should I see that movie in the theater or wait until it hits streaming?

You can thank horror movies for this option, as they were the litmus test for a custom-shifting movie-going experience. And it was successful. Even Insidious: The Red Door Ghost dropped its digital release just weeks after the film opened in theaters, and now sits at number six on Apple’s digital rental chart. The cinema-to-couch formula saves movies, and we can thank the horror genre for that.

If you don’t believe it, consider this Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One completely disappeared in the middle of BarbenHeimer, but genre films such as Insidious: The Red Doorand Meg 2 they managed to swim among them.