The All-Time Top-Grossing Scary Movies
This is a list I put together of every horror-related movie with an ADJUSTED domestic gross over $200 million. There's no point in looking at nominal gross for movies that are decades old. This list gives a better idea of the cultural impact of each movie and how many people were lining up around the block. I included horror-comedy, psycho killer and monster movies. But I left out the Twilight movies. I've never seen them but not sure if they would qualify as horror just because they have vampires and werewolves.
This is the list where I'm interested in seeing how high IT climbs. Where IT falls on this list will really give us an idea of how much of an impact it made on the public relative to other "scary" movies. Breaking the top 20 seems very doable. Top 15 also seems somewhat possible but it would require $300 million. Breaking the top 10 would be hard as that would require $350 million.
1. Jaws - $1,138,620,700
2. The Exorcist - $983,226,600
3. Jurassic Park - $817,186,200
4. Jurassic World - $702,747,400
5. Ghostbusters - $632,734,400
6. The Sixth Sense - $511,878,400
7. House of Wax - $449,228,700
8. Rear Window - $447,653,700
9. The Lost World: Jurassic Park - $443,699,500
10. Young Frankenstein - $405,804,200
11. Gremlins - $404,336,400
12. Psycho - $379,306,800
13. Fatal Attraction - $352,761,800
14. Signs - $348,787,100
15. I Am Legend - $326,476,300
16. War of the Worlds - $324,922,400
17. Jaws 2 - $308,649,500
18. The Amityville Horror - $306,127,700
19. King Kong (2005) - $300,220,700
20. Jurassic Park III - $284,561,500
21. Alien - $282,538,900
22. The Silence of the Lambs - $276,081,800
23. Hannibal - $259,305,700
24. Scary Movie - $258,980,700
25. Godzilla (1998) - $258,386,800
26. What Lies Beneath - $256,404,300
27. The Omen - $254,274,800
28. Basic Instinct - $252,191,600
29. Ghostbusters II - $251,908,900
30. The Blair Witch Project - $245,943,400
31. Poltergeist - $231,642,800
32. Rosemary's Baby - $226,630,053 (estimate)
33. Interview with the Vampire - $223,384,600
34. World War Z - $222,586,900
35. Sleeping with the Enemy - $214,540,400
36. Godzilla (2014) - $214,318,500
37. Seven - $204,124,600
38. Aliens - $204,063,200
39. Scream - $200,489,900