Horror Dominates 2026 Domestic Box Office Ahead Of Major Franchise Return That Should Be Even Bigger

Iron Lung has become yet another 2026 horror movie to scare away the competition.

2026’s Iron Lung, which has spent its first week in theaters surging up the domestic box office chart, is an underdog horror hit that adapts the video game of the same name and was self-funded by writer-director-star Mark Fischbach, the YouTuber who is better known as Markiplier.

Per The Numbers, Iron Lung has reached a cumulative domestic box office total of $23.3 million at the end of its first full week in theaters after debuting at No. 2 with a whopping $17.8 million that earned back nearly six times its reported $3 million budget. This cumulative total was enough for it to surpass the domestic haul of the Chris Pratt sci-fi movie Mercy, which was the first No. 1 debut of 2026.

By outgrossing Mercy, Iron Lung has risen to become the fourth highest-grossing domestic release of 2026 so far, which means that horror movies have so far swept the entire domestic Top 4 for 2026. The only titles ahead of it are the post-apocalyptic sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Sam Raimi’s R-rated survival thriller Send Help, and the creature feature Primate.

Below, see the Top 5 domestic releases of 2026 as of Thursday, February 5:

Rank	Title	Domestic Box Office
#1	Primate	$25.3 million
#2	Send Help	$24.5 million
#3	28 Years Later: The Bone Temple	$24.2 million
#4	Iron Lung	$23.3 million
#5	Mercy	$20.5 million

Because Super Bowl weekend has a dearth of major new wide releases, it seems likely that horror will continue to dominate the Top 4 until the release of Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights on February 13. The anticipated literary adaptation, which stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, could very well become the highest-grossing domestic release of 2026.

However, the horror genre will continue to be competitive as 2026 continues. In fact, per Deadline, the upcoming Scream 7 is expected to debut in the mid-$30 million range when it hits theaters on February 27. This means that its first three days are expected to outgross the entire cumulative totals of each of the four horror movies that are currently topping the chart.

While the domestic chart will most likely eventually grow to be dominated by the typical blockbuster tentpoles and animated features as the summer movie season heats up, there are still quite a few other 2026 horror movies that could very well make a huge splash, proving the genre’s continued viability at the box office.

The movies that could join the likes of Iron Lung and Scream 7 as some of 2026’s most notable horror hits include the horror-comedy sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (March 20), the Sam Raimi-produced Evil Dead Burn (July 24), the Blumhouse sequel Insidious: The Bleeding World (August 21), and Weapons director Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot (September 18).

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