The latest entry in the Halloween franchise, Halloween Ends, is coming out Friday, and expectations are high that it will carve out a nice spot at the box office. The two previous films from director David Gordon Green and star Jamie Lee Curtis were among the most successful in the series' 43-year history. According to Box Office Mojo by IMDbPro, Halloween (2018) is the clear frontrunner, and its immediate sequel, Halloween Kills (2021), comes in second.
Here's the complete ranking by worldwide box office sales:
1. Halloween (2018) – $255 million
2. Halloween Kills (2021) – $132 million
3. Rob Zombie’s Halloween – $80 million
4. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later – $55 million
5. Halloween (1978) – $47 million
6. Rob Zombie’s Halloween II – $39 million
7. Halloween: Resurrection – $38 million
8. Halloween II – $26 million
9. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers – $18 million
10. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers – $15 million
11. Halloween III: Season of the Witch – $14 million
12. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers – $12 million
However, this list doesn't adjust for inflation, so newer films generally perform better than older films. While there are exceptions — the original Halloween from 1978 is an unqualified hit, and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is an all-time bomb — overall it's hard to tell how well these movies did at the box office relative to each other based just on gross sales.
So Cheddar News crunched the numbers using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation Calculator, and found a very different ranking. The figures listed below are what each film's box office haul would be in September 2022 dollars, and as you'll see, the change pushes a number of the older entries higher up into the rankings.
With price is top of mind after this morning's CPI report showed a higher-than-expected jump, we also included the annual rate of U.S. inflation for the year that each film came out, as well as their respective scores on Rotten Tomatoes (just in case you are thinking about watching any of these flicks come Halloween).
1. Halloween (2018) - $300 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 2.4 percent
- Budget: $10 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 79 percent
2. Halloween (1978) – $208 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 7.6 percent
- Budget: $325,000
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 96 percent
Footnote: This includes just U.S. ticket sales, as Box Office Mojo often doesn't have worldwide data for many older releases. With the 2018 haul including global sales, that means that within America at least, the original Halloween actually beats it out by around $13 million.
3. Halloween Kills (2021) - $140 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 4.7 percent
- Budget: $20 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 39 percent
4. Rob Zombie’s Halloween (2007) – $114 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 2.9 percent
- Budget: $15 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 27 percent
5. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) – $98 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 1.6 percent
- Budget: $17 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 52 percent
6. Halloween II (1981) – $81 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 10.3 percent
- Budget: $2.5 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 30 percent
7. Halloween: Resurrection (2002) – $62 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 1.6 percent
- Budget: $13 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 10 percent
8. Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (2009) – $54 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: -0.4 percent
- Budget: $15 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 23 percent
9. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - $43.7 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 4.1 percent
- Budget: $5 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 33 percent
10. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - $43.5 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 6.1 percent
- Budget: $2.5 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 47 percent
11. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) - $29 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 2.8 percent
- Budget: $5 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 9 percent
12. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - $27 million
- U.S. annual inflation rate: 4.8 percent
- Budget: $5 million
- Rotten Tomatoes score: 12 percent
