2018-10-21

Socionomics Alert: Struggling Hollywood Hits Horror Jackpot

Deadline Hollywood: ‘Halloween’ Scares Up 2nd Best October Debut With $77M+
Universal is calling Miramax/Blumhouse’s Halloween at $77.5 million after a $27.2M Saturday, making it the second-best opening ever for the month of October behind Sony’s Venom ($80.2M). As we’ve known since Thursday night, Halloween is the best domestic opening ever for John Carpenter’s 40-year old franchise...
The first wave of horror films hit in the early 1930s during the depression. Those were the classic monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein and werewolves. The next wave of horror films hit in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Werewolves and vampires returned along with Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers (Halloween). And the third wave came in the 2000s and its never let up, with horror box office receipts growing over the past two decades as social mood remains in an overall downward trend.
Resuscitating horror franchises had become passe at the box office recently, and in the previous post we dive into what was key in bringing Halloween back to life, namely having the original creator Carpenter around as EP, Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her survivor role of Laurie Strode in #MeToo times, and fresh oxygen breathed into the property by David Gordon Green and Danny McBride.

We hear that Halloween played best in the East and the South, but overall it was excellent across the board with six out of the top 10 runs coming from the West Coast; a $200M final killing for the movie stateside is definitely within grasp.
CNBC: 'Halloween' is a massive box office contender in this new era of blockbuster horror
In 2017, horror movies made more than $1 billion at the U.S. box office alone, that's up considerably since 2014, when horror films raked in $255 million.

...This was particularly evident following the success of the original "Halloween" in 1978. While there were a number of horror films produced in the '80s and '90s that went on to cultivate cult audiences, the majority of films were panned by critics and the category was soon thought of as inferior compared to other genres.

However, that all changed in the early 2000s, according to Rick Worland, professor at Southern Methodist University and author of "The Horror Film: An Introduction."

"With 'The Ring' in 2002, there really started to be some attention to atmosphere when making horror films. [Filmmakers] weren't totally giving up on violence or gore, but were also adding this suspense element," he said.

With the release of movies like "The Ring" and "The Grudge," Hollywood discovered that younger audiences, particularly young teenage girls would go to these films they weren't too gory, Worland said.

Movies like "The Orphanage," "Paranormal Activity," and "The Conjuring," would soon follow, dialing back the gratuitous violence in favor of creating moments of prolonged tension and dread.
I believe the Federal Reserve was able to lift stock prices with QE, causing the stock market to diverge from social mood. If I'm right, stocks will have a long way to fall before they catch down to prevailing mood.

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