Today The Purge: Anarchy officially passed the gross revenue of its predecessor, The Purge. It got me thinking… Have any other horror/scifi/thriller sequels made more money than the original? There’s always “The Sophomore Slump,” a term used to describe the lack of sales when producing a sequel in any movie genre. And I know what you’re thinking. A cult following, years of buzz, more theatres, and a variety of other factors could lead to a sequel performing better than the original. However, out of the thousands of films that have been released in the last hundred years, these are the only ones I could find in an hour that met my criteria.
Without further ado, here’s a list of horror/scifi/thriller sequels that surpassed the original in terms of box office gross.
Alien (1979) – $80,931,000
Aliens (1986) – $85,160,000
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) – $25,504,000
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) – $29,999,000
The Evil Dead (1983) – $2,400,000
Evil Dead 2 (1987) – $5,923,000
Insidious (2011) – $54,009,000
Insidious 2 (2013) – $83,586,000
The Purge (2013) – $64,473,000
The Purge: Anarchy (2014) – $65,029,000 **as of 8/6/14
Psycho (1960) – $32,000,0000
Psycho 2 (1983) – $34,725,000
Resident Evil (2002) – $40,119,000
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) – $51,201,000
Saw (2004) – $55,185,000
Saw 2 (2005) – $87,039,000
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) – $130,792,000
Hannibal (2001) – $165,092,000
The Terminator (1984) – $38,371,000
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – $204,843,000
I’m curious how some of these would compare, if adjusted for inflation in ticket prices. Especially Psycho and Silence of the Lambs…