Horror had a very good year at the box office. In The Numbers' ranking of 2026 releases by domestic gross, four horror films sit in the top 15: Obsession at seventh with $263.5 million, Backrooms ninth at $197.5 million (we covered it earlier), Resident Evil 13th at $153.6 million (details here) and Scream 7 15th at $121.9 million, per The Numbers. Other Mommy, the newest entry, has $52 million so far.
These five films were reviewed very differently, and every one of them made money. Putting their numbers side by side shows two separate patterns.
The Five Films
| Film | U.S. release | Reported budget | Worldwide gross | Gross ÷ budget | Rotten Tomatoes | CinemaScore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obsession | May 15 | $0.6–0.75M | about $520M | 700–900× | 93% (330) | A− |
| Backrooms | May 29 | under $10M | about $402M | 40×+ | 86% (316) | B− |
| Resident Evil | Sep 18 | $75M | $384.4M | 5.1× | 96% (300) | B+ |
| Scream 7 | Feb 27 | $45M | $214M | 4.8× | 30% (227) | B− |
| Other Mommy | Oct 9 | $18–19M | $95M | 5.0–5.3× | 19% (96) | D+ |
All figures are from the Wikipedia pages for each film, including Obsession, retrieved on October 27, 2026, with snapshot dates that differ by film. Some are still in theaters. Budgets are reported numbers, and Resident Evil's is cited to a pre-release projection, so treat it as approximate.
Pattern One: Budget Sets the Return
Look at the last column. The three films with studio-sized budgets cluster around five times their cost, and that is true whether critics loved them or not. Resident Evil (96%) and Other Mommy (19%) have almost the same ratio. Scream 7, at 30%, is just below.
The two outliers are the two films made for almost nothing. Backrooms cost under $10 million and Obsession, shot for less than a million dollars, grossed hundreds of times that. Wikipedia lists Obsession's worldwide total as $520 million in its box-office section and $523 million in its header, a small discrepancy we flag rather than resolve.
Gross is not profit. Theaters keep a share of ticket sales, and marketing is not in the budget figure. The comparison shows where horror's economics are most forgiving: when a film costs little, the bar to profit is low whatever the reception.
Pattern Two: The Audience Grade Seems to Set the Run
Divide each film's domestic total by its opening weekend and a second pattern shows up:
| Film | Opening weekend | Domestic total | Total ÷ opening | CinemaScore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obsession | $17.2M | $263M | about 15× | A− |
| Resident Evil | $60M | $153.6M | 2.6× | B+ |
| Backrooms | $81.5M | $197.5M | 2.4× | B− |
| Scream 7 | $63.6M | $122M | 1.9× | B− |
| Other Mommy | $27.8M | $52M (running) | 1.9× | D+ |
Obsession is the extreme case. Its second weekend rose 39% to $24 million and its third was $27.4 million, so it kept growing for weeks. The film with the D+ grade has the shortest run of the five so far, and it is still in theaters. Ordered by CinemaScore, the five films fall in almost the same order as the multiplier.
Critics' scores also line up broadly: the two lowest-rated films ran the least. The one case where the two measures disagree is the most revealing. Resident Evil has the higher Rotten Tomatoes score (96% against 93%), yet Obsession ran several times longer, and that is what its A− predicts. Five films are not a rule, and the snapshot dates differ, so read this as a pattern worth watching, not a law.
What to Watch Next
Two films are still in the middle of their runs. Clayface, a body-horror film from DC Studios, opened at about $24 million with an A−. If the audience grade drives the tail, its second weekend drop should come in smaller than Other Mommy's 70%, a check we can make in a few days. For a film outside horror with a similar pattern, see our analysis of Verity, which opened at number one with a C+ and fell 63%.
Editorial Take: Horror is the one genre where a modest film can be profitable by design, which is why studios keep making it, and why critics' reviews matter less to its finances than the cost of the production. The audience grade is the signal worth watching after opening night, because it hints at whether the film will fall off a cliff or keep finding viewers. In these five cases it said more about the tail than the Rotten Tomatoes score did, and it is available on opening weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the highest-grossing horror film of 2026? Of the films covered here, Obsession, with about $520 million worldwide and $263 million domestically, per The Numbers and Wikipedia.
How much did Obsession cost to make? Reported at $600,000 to $750,000.
Did Other Mommy make money? On a reported $18–19 million budget, its $95 million worldwide gross is about five times its cost. Theaters' share and marketing mean that is not a profit figure.
Which horror film has the best audience score? Obsession has an A− CinemaScore and Resident Evil a B+. Other Mommy has a D+.
Are these budgets confirmed? They are reported figures from Wikipedia and its sources. Resident Evil's budget is cited to a pre-release article.
Box office and review figures come from the sources linked above and can change. Tracking what arrives next across movies, TV, games, music and books at incoming.to.