One of the most anticipated horror films of 2024 was Terrifier 3 and its success is in sharp contrast to a growing issue with Hollywood movies. Following the financial success of Terrifier 2, Terrifier 3 goes bigger with a larger budget, plenty of kills, and expanded lore. With a production budget of only $2 million–a fraction of what most major franchise films have–Terrifier 3 earned back about 35 times its production budget globally.

Terrifier 3's box office climbed 2024's highest-grossing movies list domestically at $53 million. This puts it right behind Joker: Foile à Deux, which made $58 million domestically; however, that sequel has a significantly larger production budget at $200 million. As a result, Joker 2 has a lackluster theatrical run while Terrifier 3 is a box office darling.

It's not just the Joker sequel that is performing poorly at the box office. In recent years, films that once would have been considered major successes are flopping. Meanwhile, a smaller-budget, more independent film like Terrifier 3 sees profit. One of the key reasons for this is because traditional blockbusters are setting themselves up for failure with impossibly large budgets.

Hollywood Needs to Lower Movie Budgets to Help Films Be More Successful

Hollywood Blockbusters Keep Flopping at the Box Office

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning's box office disappointment, for instance. Domestically, it grossed more than Terrifier 3's box office at $172 million. Globally, it makes over three times that at $567.5 million. Despite this, Dead Reckoning is a flop, having lost an estimated $100 million.

To consider a movie that made over half a billion dollars at the box office a flop is obscure, but that's what happens when the budgets for these blockbusters are so massive. It's an impossible standard to meet, which is why Terrifier 3, with its reasonable, small production budget, was able to make back its investments while maintaining the quality of filmmaking fans expect of the franchise, as seen by Terrifier 3's Rotten Tomatoes score breaking 11 records.

Why Hollywood Will Struggle to Replicate Terrifier 3's Success

Hollywood Doubles Down on Overpriced IPs and Franchises

While Terrifier 3 made a profit, big-budget films have more to lose. However, the chance to make an enormous amount of money off a multi-million dollar film is too tempting for some studios. Looking at the 10 highest-grossing films of 2023, many of them are big-budget films with an established IP and stacked cast, but just because a film has a big box office doesn't mean it will make back its money.

While Barbie achieved incredible box office records, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning is another one of the top-grossing films of 2023, and it's still a financial failure. It's a massive gamble to make a multi-million dollar picture, but it's a gamble studios take even when it's been proven time and again that small-budget and mid-budget films can be financial successes without as much of a risk.

Going back to Dead Reckoning as an example, studios aren't learning from this financial failure. Instead, they've doubled down on the follow-up film. Mission Impossible 8's record budget is extremely worrying as it's over $300 million dollars. With blockbuster films of this size often needing to be 2.5 times their budget to be a success, it's a massive risk to continue this pattern. It's also an unnecessary one when films like Terrifier 3 prove small-budget films can be more profitable for less.