The Halloween franchise is one of the longest and most storied in horror movie history, but which of the 13 slasher films made the most money at the box office? Released in 1978, John Carpenter’s Halloween shocked the world and essentially launched the modern slasher genre as we know it today. The indie film was a box office sensation, bringing horror into the ’80s.
Naturally, one Michael Myers movie wasn’t going to cut it. Halloween II followed a few years later, before the franchise took a truly unique turn. Halloween III: The Season of the Witch abandoned the knife-wielding murderer in favor of an entirely new horror story. It’s since become a cult classic, but the failure of Halloween III put the franchise on ice for most of the 1980s.
When the series eventually thawed out in 1988, Myers was once again the blank face of the franchise. Since then, Halloween has been rebooted and retconned on several occasions, resulting in one of the most confusing timelines in the horror genre. There are actually a handful of separate offshoot timelines within the Halloween series, but that’s a topic for another article.
As with any long-running movie series, Halloween represents big money. Many of the films have done quite well, even if the critical reception is poor. Only a few Halloween movies could be considered flops, but none were absolute bombs. Low budgets mean that profits are high and risk is quite low. Of the 13 Halloween movies, the highest-grossing might surprise you.
13
Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers (1989) – $11 Million
Michael Myers largely missed the slasher movie boom that he helped create, but the franchise came roaring back in the late ’80s with a continuation of the series. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers picked up right where the fourth film left off, and was released a year after its predecessor. Despite this synergy, Revenge was a flop.
On a reported production budget of $5 million, the film only eked out $11 million at the box office. This not only means the film is the lowest-grossing in the series, but it most likely only broke even. Marketing and advertising costs likely pushed the overall budget to approximately $10 million.
12
Halloween III: The Season Of The Witch (1982) – $14 Million
Certainly the most polarizing film in the franchise, Halloween III: The Season of the Witch is mostly remembered as the “one without Michael Myers.” John Carpenter’s vision for an anthology franchise was put to the test, and it was reviled by critics (at the time) and largely rejected by audiences. However, the $14 million box office gross means it probably made a little bit of money on a $5 million budget.
11
Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers (1995) – $15 Million
With its convoluted plot and hack-job edit, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is an intriguing disaster. It attempts to explain Michael Myers’ evil, but leaves viewers with more questions than answers. It’s one of the lowest-grossing installments for several reasons, but timing plays a big part. All the momentum the so-called Thorn Trilogy might have had is halted by a half-decade of release delays.
Nevertheless, a $5 million budget means costs were kept pretty low. The film only made $15 million, but it likely turned a profit. Home video sales and rentals also likely helped push The Curse of Michael Myers into profitable territory.
10
Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers (1988) – $17 Million
Promising the return of a slasher icon after nearly a decade, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers seemed destined for success. Though it’s a pretty standard and disposable slasher film, there’s no denying that the fourth movie delivers everything it promises. It wasn’t much of a gamble, and it paid off with a tidy little profit.
Once again made for only $5 million, the film’s $17 million box office take looks pretty strong. Even after additional costs, the film probably netted more than its production budget in total profits. This helped launch Michael Myers back into the slasher conversation, even if the subsequent films saw worse and worse returns.
9
Halloween II (1981) – $25 Million
Compared to the towering box office success of its predecessor, Halloween II looks like a failure. However, the first sequel in the franchise actually did pretty well, even if it couldn’t live up to the almost impossible standard of the original. Carpenter gave up the director’s chair, but co-wrote the story with Debra Hill. Therefore, Halloween II feels authentic to the original vision.
A measly $2.5 million budget went into the production, and audiences contributed a total box office of $25 million. Any way you cut it, Halloween II was a resounding financial success. Fans wanted more Michael Myers bloodshed, but the franchise quickly took an unexpected left turn.
8
Halloween: Resurrection (2002) – $37 Million
Despite the franchise having already been thoroughly used and abused by the early 2000s, Halloween: Resurrection somehow made things worse. The original Myers house, a cheesy reality show, and a cast full of bad actors undoes all the goodwill that was established by H20 a few years earlier. Resurrection is the worst Halloween film by a country mile.
Though the negatives certainly outweighed the positives, the film made nearly $40 million at the box office. It cost $15 million to make, so the goofy slasher flick likely turned a small profit after all other costs were factored into the equation.
7
Halloween II (2009) – $39 Million
Following the initial excitement surrounding Rob Zombie’s reinvention of the Halloween franchise in the 2007 film, the duology settled back down to Earth in the sequel. Zombie’s Halloween II got slightly worse reviews and saw a pretty major drop in its box office performance. $39 million against a $15 million budget is hardly a huge financial success, especially when compared to the first.
6
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) – $55 Million
After the franchise crashed and burned in part six, it rose like a phoenix from the ashes in 1998’s Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Not only did Michael Myers return to kill again, but Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role as Laurie Strode. The film ditched a lot of the established canon and H20 was essentially a blank slate.
Getting above the $50 million mark for the first time since the original film, H20 was exactly what the franchise needed. Even a relatively large production budget of $17 million wasn’t enough to eat into the profits. $55 million (though some sources report $75 million) made it the second highest-grossing film in the series for years.
5
Halloween (1978) – $70 Million
Adjusting for inflation, the original Halloween would technically be the highest-grossing film in the franchise. However, it has since fallen down the rankings thanks to the huge box offices of the 21st century. Despite being a relatively unknown film at the time, Halloween tapped into the common fears of the late 1970s, and was rewarded with an eye-watering $70 million at the box office.
The film was made on a reported budget of around $300 thousand, meaning Halloween was a pretty low-budget movie even for the time. As is often the case with major horror franchises, the success of the first film is a testament to the low-cost-high-reward method of producing movies.
4
Halloween (2007) – $80 Million
Rob Zombie’s film output is divisive to say the least, and his take on Halloween is as hated as it is loved. The film exists in its own timeline, building new lore around the origins of Michael Myers and his killing spree. Remakes and reboots were common in the 2000s, but Zombie’s doesn’t fade into the background. Curious moviegoers pushed the film to a pretty impressive box office run.
2007’s Halloween scored $80 million in theaters, against a relatively small budget of only $15 million. If it weren’t for the most recent trilogy of Halloween films from Blumhouse, Zombie’s unique take on the Myers mythos would claim the top spot.