From The Shining to Pet Sematary: The 1980s Biggest Horror Hit Changed More Often Than Fans Remember

The 1980s felt like a nonstop parade of horror sequels, and in some ways it was. Between 1980 and 1989, eight Friday the 13th films and five A Nightmare on Elm Street movies opened, but a year by year box office look shows the decade’s biggest straight horror hits were not always the ones people might guess.

The early 1980s were not ruled by one monster

Using domestic grosses listed by Box Office Mojo, and limiting the field to straight horror movies without adjusting for inflation, the decade opens with a title that now feels more like a classic than a conventional box office winner. In 1980, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining led the genre with $44.0 million for Warner Bros. The nearest challenger was Friday the 13th, which opened two weeks earlier and made $39.8 million for Paramount. That total still mattered. It turned out to be the biggest Friday the 13th movie of the decade, and none of the seven sequels released through 1989 passed it.

The 1981 leader was An American Werewolf in London, which brought in $30.6 million for Universal. It finished about $5 million ahead of Halloween II, another Universal release that arrived on October 30, the day before Halloween. The film’s famous transformation sequence also had an afterlife beyond the box office. Rick Baker won the Academy Award for Makeup for the work at the 1982 ceremony.

Then came the decade’s biggest straight horror success. Poltergeist topped 1982 with $76.6 million, a total no other straight horror release in the 1980s matched. The movie also carried one of the era’s best known credit disputes. Tobe Hooper directed it, but Steven Spielberg co wrote and produced it, and MGM’s trailers used “A Steven Spielberg Production” at twice the size of Hooper’s credit. The studio was ordered to pay Hooper $15,000 in damages. Spielberg had another release that month too. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial opened a week later and went on to make $359.2 million.

In 1983, the top earner was Psycho II. Universal released Norman Bates’ return 23 years after Hitchcock’s original, and it grossed $34.7 million. It beat a crowded field that included Twilight Zone: The Movie at $29.5 million, along with Cujo and The Dead Zone at about $21 million each. If broader genre titles were counted, Jaws 3 D would have been bigger at $45.5 million, but it falls outside the straight horror lane.

Freddy became the decade’s most reliable winner, but not right away

1984 belonged to Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, which earned $33 million after opening on April 13. Despite the title and the marketing promise that this was the end of Jason Voorhees, the series kept going, with four more Friday the 13th movies arriving before the decade ended. The release that would loom largest in horror history that year was A Nightmare on Elm Street, but at the 1984 box office it finished with $25.5 million. More than a quarter of that total came in 1985. If the straight horror restriction were removed, 1984 would look very different, because Ghostbusters made $229.2 million and Gremlins made $148.2 million after both opened on June 8.

Freddy Krueger’s first yearly win came in 1985. A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge opened on November 1 and finished with $30 million, nearly $5 million more than the original. It came in ahead of Fright Night, the vampire next door hit that made $24.9 million, while Friday the 13th: A New Beginning placed third with $21.9 million. Teen Wolf actually reached $33.1 million, but it sits outside the straight horror category.

The closest contest of the decade followed in 1986. Poltergeist II: The Other Side took in $41 million for MGM, while David Cronenberg’s The Fly earned $40.5 million for 20th Century Fox. The gap was about $540,000. The Fly still claimed a major prize, winning the Oscar for Makeup. On the broader genre side, Aliens towered over both with $85.2 million and seven Oscar nominations, including Best Actress for Sigourney Weaver.

By 1987, Freddy was fully established as a repeat champion. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors opened on February 27 and grossed $44.8 million for New Line. That put it $12.6 million ahead of Warner Bros.’ The Lost Boys, the summer’s teen vampire movie, and gave Freddy his second yearly win in three years. Two other genre hits, The Witches of Eastwick at $63.8 million and Predator at $59.7 million, both opened on June 12, but neither counted as straight horror here.

Freddy stayed on top in 1988. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master earned $49.4 million, making it the highest grossing Freddy movie of the 1980s. The year also introduced another slasher mainstay. Child’s Play opened in November and brought in $33.2 million, nearly double what Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers managed three weeks earlier. Beetlejuice was bigger still at $73.7 million, though again not as straight horror.

Stephen King closed the decade on top

The final year’s winner was Pet Sematary. Released by Paramount on April 21, 1989, it made $57.5 million and finished far ahead of the rest of the straight horror field. It also marked the first time Stephen King adapted one of his own novels for the screen himself, writing the screenplay for this one.

Nothing else in straight horror came especially close that year. A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child took in $22.2 million, and The Fly II made $20.0 million. Outside the category, Ghostbusters II reached $112.5 million.

Taken together, the decade’s yearly winners show a richer picture than the usual shorthand of “the slasher era.” Sequels absolutely arrived on a schedule, but the top spot moved from Kubrick to Spielberg backed horror, from Norman Bates to Freddy Krueger, and finally back to Stephen King. Even in a decade remembered for familiar villains, the box office was not telling the same story every single year.