Genre Trends Timeline
Every Scary Bacon genre plotted by the number of titles the slate produced each year. Volume is the honest signal here — it shows what money was actually committed to, a year or two after the audience signal appeared.
Titles per year
click a genre chip to add or remove itGenre ledger
peak year, latest year, direction| Genre | Titles (span) | Peak | 2026 | Share | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Psychological PSYC | 285 | 175 in 2025 | 110 | 56.7% | -37% |
| Supernatural SUPR | 109 | 71 in 2025 | 38 | 19.6% | -46% |
| Survival / Wilderness SURV | 89 | 55 in 2025 | 34 | 17.5% | -38% |
| Horror Comedy COMH | 68 | 36 in 2025 | 32 | 16.5% | -11% |
| Techno / AI Horror TECH | 62 | 34 in 2025 | 28 | 14.4% | -18% |
| Creature Feature CRTR | 60 | 32 in 2025 | 28 | 14.4% | -13% |
| Slasher SLSH | 50 | 33 in 2025 | 17 | 8.8% | -48% |
| Ritual / Occult RTL | 37 | 24 in 2025 | 13 | 6.7% | -46% |
| Found Footage FOUN | 32 | 23 in 2025 | 9 | 4.6% | -61% |
| Body Horror BODY | 31 | 16 in 2025 | 15 | 7.7% | -6% |
| Folk Horror FOLK | 28 | 19 in 2025 | 9 | 4.6% | -53% |
| Splatterpunk SPLT | 23 | 12 in 2025 | 11 | 5.7% | -8% |
| Apocalyptic APOC | 15 | 9 in 2025 | 6 | 3.1% | -33% |
| Gothic Romance GOTH | 10 | 6 in 2025 | 4 | 2.1% | -33% |
| Domestic Horror DOMS | 10 | 8 in 2025 | 2 | 1.0% | -75% |
| Cosmic / Lovecraftian COSM | 7 | 5 in 2026 | 5 | 2.6% | +150% |
Era timeline
the trades that reset what the genre was worthThe release slate on file covers 2025–2026. For the long view, these are the landmark titles — budget against worldwide gross — that moved horror's valuation over five decades.
- 1978 · Halloween$0.3M budget → $70M gross · 233x
Independent slasher proves micro-budget horror can out-earn studio drama.
- 1996 · Scream$14M budget → $173M gross · 12x
Meta-slasher revives a dead category and launches a four-film run.
- 1999 · The Blair Witch Project$0.06M budget → $248M gross · 2480x
First internet-marketed hit. The template for every viral found-footage cycle since.
- 2004 · Saw$1.2M budget → $103M gross · 86x
Opens the 2000s torture cycle and an annual-release franchise model.
- 2009 · Paranormal Activity$0.015M budget → $193M gross · 1930x
Demand-driven platform release; the highest budget multiple in modern film.
- 2013 · The Conjuring$20M budget → $320M gross · 16x
Turns a haunting into a shared universe — horror's first true IP portfolio.
- 2017 · Get Out$4.5M budget → $255M gross · 57x
Elevated social horror breaks out and takes an Original Screenplay Oscar.
- 2023 · Five Nights at Freddy's$20M budget → $297M gross · 15x
Game/creator fandom converts directly to opening weekend — the audience arrived pre-built.
- 2024 · Terrifier 3$2M budget → $90M gross · 45x
Unrated indie tops the chart on fan evangelism alone. No studio, no PG-13.
- 2025 · Sinners$90M budget → $366M gross · 4x
Original, expensive, auteur-led horror clears $100M domestic — a new ceiling.
- 2025 · Weapons$38M budget → $270M gross · 7x
Second original R-rated $100M domestic hit of 2025; mystery-horror becomes bankable.