“Studios, Be Very Afraid: It’s a Horror-Movie Traffic Jam”

Because of Halloween, movie studios typically target October as a month to release horror movies. But this year, they’ve gone pretty much crazy as this article in TheWrap points out:

’Tis the season to be frightened.

Hoping to cash in on the Halloween zeitgeist, Hollywood studios are flooding the market with horror films. This weekend alone will bring four movies from the genre — “Let Me In,” “Case 39,” “Chain Letter,” and “Hatchet II.” And 7 more are on the way in the next month.

Over the next few weeks, in fact, nearly every third film released will fit squarely into the horror category.

“We haven’t seen anything like this for some time. They have a stranglehold on this season,” Jeff Bock, a box-office analyst with Exhibitor Relations, told TheWrap. “All this crowding is going to be a bad thing. There’s a real chopping block for these movies, and they usually fall off the charts within two to three weeks of their release.”

Here are 9 horror movies to be released in October:

10/1/10

Case 39
Let Me In
Chain Letter
Hatchet II

10/8/10

My Soul to Take
I Spit on Your Grave

10/22/10

Paranormal Activity 2
Saw 3D

10/29/10

Night of the Demons

“The market will be tested now that the first leaf of fall has dropped,” Ryan Turek, managing editor of horror fansite ShockTillYouDrop.com, told TheWrap. “I think that there’s a big enough fan base for many of these movies to get people into these theaters, and they are all different enough.”

In one sense, it almost doesn’t matter. Horror films tend to be relatively economical to produce and market, with budgets usually kept under $20 million. So when they hit, they hit big.

A movie like “The Last Exorcism,” produced at a cost of less than $2 million, can open to $20 million., for instance. It’s no mistake that the most profitable film in movie history is “Paranormal Activity,” which cost $15,000 to make and racked up $193 million globally.

Number two on that list is another selection from the genre: “The Blair Witch Project” and its $248.6 million worldwide take, on a $60,000 budget, or a 414,233 percent return on investment.

“The great thing about horror films,” Contrino told TheWrap,” is there’s no better way to make money than cheap thrills.”

Okay, all you horror movie fans, which ones are you excited to see? Which ones do you think will rule the box office?

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