CutMirchi's recent reporting says little about homegrown Indian horror hits, but it does show Hollywood horror imports performing well on Indian screens.
The premise that horror and horror-comedy keep working at the Indian box office is not well supported by CutMirchi's own coverage from the past month. What the reporting actually shows is a Hollywood horror reboot, Resident Evil, performing strongly on Indian screens (11, 12), alongside a steady diet of horror franchise news and one upcoming Bollywood film that blends horror with other genres (9). There is little in the evidence about Indian-made horror or horror-comedy titles succeeding domestically, and the release tracker does not list horror as a leading genre in any Indian-language industry tracked.
Resident Evil is the clearest Indian data point, and it is an import
The strongest piece of Indian box office evidence in this period concerns a Hollywood film, not a homegrown one. Resident Evil, directed by Zach Cregger, opened in India with roughly Rs 3.75 crore gross on its first day, including Rs 50 lakh from Thursday previews, according to trade reports cited by 123telugu.com (11). The film then grew on its second day rather than dropping, adding about Rs 4.70 crore on Saturday to reach a two-day total of around Rs 8.50 crore, a pattern Pinkvilla's trade estimates called unusual for a horror reboot in India (12). The report on that growth noted the film had no A-list Bollywood crossover pull, which made the second-day increase notable to distributors (12). This is one film's run, reported through trade estimates, and it says something about appetite for a particular Hollywood horror property in India, not about horror as a genre writ large.
The genre is clearly working in North America and worldwide, which may explain why it travels
Away from India, CutMirchi's coverage shows horror performing well in its home markets, which could help explain why studios keep bringing these titles to Indian screens. Resident Evil set a franchise opening record in North America, pulling in about $55 million in its debut weekend according to Variety's reporting, the strongest opening the series has seen since 2010 (7, 10). It kept climbing afterward, crossing $113.7 million worldwide within days (13), reaching $126.5 million within a week (15), and by October 10 standing at $251.6 million globally, just $10 million short of Terminator: Dark Fate's lifetime total, per Box Office Mojo data cited by Koimoi (23). Separately, Insidious: Out of the Further turned an $18 million budget into a worldwide tally of $155.2 million within a month, well past its reported break-even target of $45 million, according to figures Koimoi cited from Box Office Mojo (5, 8). Other Mommy, despite a D+ CinemaScore and poor reviews, still topped the North American weekend box office with an opening reported variously as $28 million and $12.6 million on its first day, exceeding Universal's own projection of $20 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety (24, 25, 26). These are the kinds of outcomes that keep studios producing horror at volume, even when reviews are weak.
Horror draws built-in franchise loyalty even when reviews are mixed
A recurring thread in the coverage is that horror audiences show up regardless of critical reception. Insidious: Out of the Further is described as proving that "a modest budget and a loyal fanbase can outrun mixed reviews" (5). Other Mommy scored just 19 percent on Rotten Tomatoes by one count and a D+ CinemaScore, the lowest since Megalopolis in 2024, yet still topped its opening weekend (24), with a separate report putting its audience score at 46 percent and critics at 18 percent (28). Netflix's Below similarly became the platform's most-watched show globally despite a modest audience score, with critics far more generous at 82 percent against an audience figure reported as 60 percent in one account (27) and conflicting figures elsewhere (19). This pattern, strong openings or viewership despite weak reviews, suggests that horror benefits from pre-existing fan bases and marketing hooks, such as Other Mommy's viral trailer and a widely shared sequence involving a demonic entity and a ball pit (16, 28), more than from critical validation.
Studios are building horror as an ongoing pipeline, not one-off bets
Blumhouse and its partners are visibly stacking future horror and horror-adjacent releases rather than treating any single title as a bet. At New York Comic-Con, Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Paramount Primal set an August 2027 release date for Molepeople, starring LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn and directed by Rob Savage, the same director behind Other Mommy (17, 18). Blumhouse also announced a live-action adaptation of the comic Something Is Killing the Children, directed by Craig Zobel, as part of its 2027 slate unveiled at the same event (20), and signed a deal with horror creator Heidi Wong for shorts rooted in Eastern mythology, with Wong saying of the work, "I grew up in Asia, so it's very close to me" (21). FX, meanwhile, keeps returning to American Horror Story, with its thirteenth season folding earlier seasons' characters together and featuring Jessica Lange in multiple roles (2, 14). None of this is Indian production, but it illustrates an industry habit of treating horror as a renewable, lower-risk format worth continuous investment, which indirectly shapes what gets exported to Indian multiplexes.
Bollywood's one clear horror-adjacent bet leans on scale and genre-mixing, not formula
The only Hindi-industry project in this period that touches horror is Samuk, pairing director Vipul Shah with Akshay Kumar for a seventh collaboration, described as an alien-horror survival thriller (9). Publicist Rajesh Vasani told Bollywood Hungama that flying in a real helicopter for a London sequence "is not merely a production decision, it reflects the filmmaking philosophy of Vipul Amrutlal Shah," and that the director has "taken Samuk into an entirely new territory" by combining science fiction, survival drama, action, horror and alien mythology in one film (9). The report also notes the project has been in development for over two years and includes overseas crew such as creature-effects designer Alec Gillis (9). This is a single upcoming film, not evidence of a horror trend already working at the Indian box office, and it is positioned as genre-blending rather than straightforward horror or horror-comedy.
What the coverage does not tell us
This set of reports covers roughly one month of one site's output, drawn heavily from trade press such as Variety, Deadline, Koimoi and Pinkvilla, and it is weighted toward Hollywood and streaming horror rather than Indian-language cinema. The release tracker, covering films from 2000 to early 2027, does not list horror among the most common genres for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada cinema in this window; Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Action and Romance dominate across all five industries. Box office figures here are trade estimates, attributed to Box Office Mojo, Variety or named trade outlets, and figures for the same film sometimes differ between reports, as with Jessica Lange's character count in American Horror Story, reported as four by Just Jared and three by TheWrap (2), or Other Mommy's audience score, given as 46 percent in one report (28) and 19 percent in another framed as a Rotten Tomatoes critics figure (24). Coverage of a handful of releases cannot establish whether horror specifically outperforms other genres in India, why audiences in India respond to a title like Resident Evil, or whether Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Kannada horror-comedies are succeeding at all, since none appear in this evidence.
What to watch
Resident Evil's India run and its climb toward the franchise's worldwide top five, needing under $20 million more to pass Resident Evil: Apocalypse's $129.3 million lifetime total as of early October (13, 15, 23), will be worth tracking as a signal of continued Hollywood horror appetite in Indian theatres. Akshay Kumar and Vipul Shah's Samuk, still in production with its London helicopter sequence, is the one upcoming Hindi project in this evidence mixing horror with other genres (9). On the international pipeline side, Molepeople is dated for August 2027 (17, 18), Something Is Killing the Children has been formally announced under Blumhouse (20), and Prime Video's The Consultant, starring Christoph Waltz, arrives October 23, 2026 (30), all of which may shape what eventually reaches Indian audiences through theatrical release or streaming.
Sources
- Jessica Lange Returns To American Horror Story As Multiple Characters, reported from Just Jared, JoBlo.com, TheWrap
- Insidious Sequel Turns $18 Million Budget Into $155 Million Hit, reported from Koimoi
- Resident Evil Reboot Eyes Franchise-Best Opening In North America, reported from Koimoi, Google News · World entertainment
- Insidious Out Of The Further Nears Franchise's Top Three Worldwide, reported from Koimoi - Box Office, Google News · World entertainment
- Akshay Kumar's Samuk Flies In A Real Helicopter For London Shoot, reported from Bollywood Hungama, Bollywood Hungama - Main Feed
- Resident Evil Reboot Sets Franchise Record with $55 Million Opening, reported from Variety
- Resident Evil Debuts With Rs 3.75 Crore On Indian Screens, reported from 123telugu.com
- Resident Evil Zombies Its Way To Rs 8.50 Crore In Two Days, reported from Pinkvilla, Google News · World entertainment
- Resident Evil Reboot Races Toward Franchise Top Five With $113 Million Worldwide, reported from Google News · World entertainment, Koimoi
- American Horror Story Season 13 Drops Triple‑Episode Premiere Thursday, reported from TheWrap, The Hollywood Reporter
- Resident Evil 2026 Inches Closer to Franchise’s Global Top Five, reported from Koimoi - Box Office
- Other Mommy's Darker Ending Sparks Debate, reported from Variety
- Stanfield’s Underground Horror Molepeople Gets 2027 Release Date at NYCC, reported from Variety
- LaKeith Stanfield And Ben Mendelsohn Join Rob Savage's Molepeople Horror, reported from JoBlo.com
- Netflix’s New Horror Series Below Scores 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, reported from Collider
- Zobel Steps Into the Dark With ‘Something Is Killing the Children’ Film, reported from Deadline, TheWrap
- Heidi Wong Signs With Blumhouse For Myth-Based Horror Shorts, reported from Variety
- Zach Cregger Resident Evil Beats Terminator: Dark Fate Box Office, reported from Koimoi
- Other Mommy Tops Box Office Despite D+ Score, Sorkin’s Facebook Film Falters, reported from The Hollywood Reporter
- Other Mommy Release Date, Cast, Trailer and Box Office: Everything We Know, reported from Filmfare, JoBlo.com, Just Jared
- Arabella Olivia Clark Young: Horror Star with Dreams of Space and Aliens, reported from Variety
- Netflix's Below Tops Global Charts Despite Low Audience Score, reported from Screen Rant
- Blumhouse’s 2026 Horror Run Ends in a Whisper After Other Mommy Flops, reported from Screen Rant
- The Consultant: Christoph Waltz’s New Horror Series Drops October 23 on Prime Video, reported from Screen Rant
This analysis was written by CutMirchi's automated Analysis Desk from the stories listed above and from our release tracker. Figures are as those reports gave them; trade figures are estimates.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.