Hollywood.com Announces Top Horror Films by Box Office

I guess it's another way of measuring the top films. Using dollar amounts can measure either popularity, or a well duped audience. This phenomenon is well evidenced by the list that Hollywood.com has released. It ranks the top 25 films according to their domestic US gross and adjusted to today's dollars, just to even the playing field.

The films are a bit of a mixed bag. Some classic, some not so, and some I am not even sure count as horror films. I am of the persuasion that even if a film has creature or monster or some such contained within, that does not automatically make it a horror film.

Something else this list shows me is just how bad the current state of the box office is. As you look at the list, pay close attention to the adjusted gross. When was the last time you saw a film pull in those kinds of numbers? It might even make you wonder where the audiences are running away to. Perhaps there were frightened by ticket prices and horrified by the concessions. Whatever the case may be, they aren't packing in the theaters.

Below you can see the top ten films from their compiled list, to see the full list, visit Hollywood.com. Now let's see how these ten blockbusters match up. First take a look at the list, my comments will follow the chart.

Rank	Title	Studio	Adjusted Gross Domestic Box Office	Gross Domestic Box Office
1	Jaws (1975)	UNIVERSAL	$795,369,426	$260,000,000
2	The Exorcist (1973)	WARNER BROS	$686,631,452	$232,671,011
3	The Sixth Sense (1999)	BUENA VISTA	$357,566,366	$293,506,292
4	The Mummy Returns (2001)	UNIVERSAL	$221,650,716	$202,019,785
5	Jaws 2 (1978)	UNIVERSAL	$215,603,340	$81,766,007
6	The Amityville Horror (1979)	AMERICAN INT.	$213,841,738	$86,432,000
7	Alien (1979)	FOX	$200,233,659	$80,931,801
8	The Mummy (1999)	UNIVERSAL	$189,949,583	$155,385,488
9	What Lies Beneath (2000)	DREAMWORKS	$179,115,699	$155,464,351
10	The Omen (1976)	FOX	$177,620,519	$60,922,980

First let me say that the two Mummy films are not horror films, at least by my estimation. They fall more to the action/adventure side of the celluloid, more Indiana Jones than Hammer Films. By the same token, What Lies Beneath is a thriller, but hardly horror. I even think that The Sixth Sense pushes the definition of horror. I wonder what the top list would look like by my definition.

As for the rest of the list, it has a few classics in there. The top 2 are a couple of the best ever made. Spielberg ushered in the era of the summer blockbuster with his take on Peter Benchley's tale of a killer shark. The Exorcist, on the other hand, stands as one of, if not the, scariest film ever made. Both of these rightly deserve the money they have made over the years, not to mention the attention.

On the other hand, I am not so sure if The Amityville Horror or Jaws 2 are deserving of their takes. In the first case, I am not much of a fan. Actually, I found it dull and uninspired, but it has been awhile since I saw it and the 2005 remake hasn't instilled me with any real desire to revisit it. In the second case, it was just a sub par sequel riding the coattails of the classic original.

As an added bonus, the same column at Hollywood.com lists the top six horror/comedy crossovers. The top three are classics. The three tops are Ghostbusters, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Young Einstein. All three of them are deserving of all they got. Although, I suspect that Rocky Horror took considerably longer to amass it's take.

Overall, the lists give an interesting look into the state of horror films, and the state of the box office in a more general way. It may also be interesting to note that, of the top ten, six are from the 1970's and the remaining 4 are 1999 or newer, and questionable as horror films.

It also makes me wonder how the slasher films match up?

Any thoughts?

Be sure to visit Hollywood.com.