20 Huge Horror Movie Hits NOBODY Expected

The track record of short horror films adapted into features is incredibly hit-and-miss, and so it was never guaranteed that David F. Sandberg's expansion of his hugely popular 2013 short Lights Out would do much business. After all, Sandberg had never helmed a fully budgeted feature before, and it could've very well been yet another punchy horror short that just didn't translate to a feature-length execution (looking at you, Night Swim).

But Lights Out blew past modest industry expectations in its opening weekend, grossing enough to steal the #3 spot from the far more mainstream-friendly Ice Age: Collision Course. By the end of its run, Sandberg's film raked in a terrific $148.9 million - a phenomenal return on its impressively low $5 million price tag.

It's a performance that's perhaps even more surprising in retrospect, that Sandberg's low-fi debut ended up grossing more than his 2023 flop superhero sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods ($134.1 million). And yet, despite Lights Out seemingly launching a new horror IP, a sequel hasn't materialised in the near-decade since, with Sandberg recently opining that "the moment has passed." 

Talk about money left on the table.