While Scream 4 disappoints, Insidious is the most profitable movie of 2011

SCREAM 4 turned out to be something of a disappointment at the box-office, to the point where Dimension, who had be planning two more sequels, has put the kibosh on any future installments of the once-popular franchise. But before you start worrying that horror is dead, there is the continuing success story of INSIDIOUS. An original horror film budgeted at just $1 million and bringing in $45 million in the US alone, it has already become the most profitable movie of the year so far.

INSIDIOUS has yet to open in England and South America, which means by the time it’s all said and done, estimates have it that the film will probably gross about $150 million worldwide. Pretty good for a movie that was shot independently on a shoestring budget. The film has been getting great word-of-mouth, which has helped keep the film going strong at the box-office while other projects are dipping over 50%.

So does this mean there’s a franchise budding? Considering that the creators of INSIDIOUS are James Wan and Leigh Whannell whose SAW went on to seven films and Oren Peli who is producing the third PARANORMAL ACTIVITY film, this seems pretty likely. There are no plans as of yet but whenever a microbudgeted horror film does this well at the box-office, a sequel is almost always a sure thing.

It also cements the careers of Wan and Whannell who struggled with DEAD SILENCE but have now created two strong horror franchises. Neither are particularly great movies but they’re both good and have caught on with audiences in a big way and sometimes that’s all that matters.