The Wire
15Lionsgate’s Blair Witch reboot keeps moving without Heather Donahue after she passed on terms tied to rights, future identity/voice tech use and compensation. Jason Blum and James Wan have Joshua Leonard, Michael C. Williams, Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez and Gregg Hale attached as exec producers; the film is targeting theaters next year.
FilmIP/FilmJun 13
Markiplier’s Iron Lung used 79,800 gallons of blood on set, setting a new horror production record while the $3 million videogame adaptation has reached $51.2 million to date. The breakout underlines how low-budget genre IP can still generate outsized theatrical returns.
Little One adds Mark O’Brien, Elias Koteas, Carmen Christopher and Jamie McShane to its cast as Alex Kavutskiy’s feature debut moves toward a Los Angeles shoot this month. Zach Cregger and Roy Lee are producing, with Hammerstone Studios financing the horror-comedy package.
FilmScreenAnarchyJun 12
$10M Spanish-language sci-fi creature feature Pacifico sets a world premiere at BIFAN; Gonzalo Gutiérrez's island-survival horror play arrives via FilmSharks, with the cast and international buyers to be unveiled around the launch.
WME has signed horror scribe Chris Thomas Devlin as his profile spikes on Lionsgate and Blumhouse-Atomic Monster’s Blair Witch Project reimagining; he’s also developing original survival-horror feature Doomtown under Divide/Conquer’s first-look with Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.
FilmIPReel ChicagoJun 13
Chicago’s summer slate includes Disney Channel’s live-action The Last Kids on Earth pilot, set to start July 13, and Herbert West: Reanimator moving toward an Alton shoot through Woodlake Entertainment. The local production pipeline also flags an HBO Max pilot, but the horror hook is the Lovecraft re-adaptation.
The Housemaid turned into a £32M-plus UK/Ireland breakout; Lionsgate credits early exhibitor screenings, Boxing Day timing, BookTok seeding and a laser target on women 15-44.
FilmDeadlineJun 12
Kent Moran’s psychological thriller The One has set Emily Kinney, Hayley McFarland, Zach Roerig and Catherine Curtin as filming continues in Stamford and Greenwich, CT. Moran is writing, directing and starring; Angela Ostermeier and Kat Moran are producing for Wishing Well Pictures.
Disney+ Canada orders a true-crime series, adding another genre commission to its local slate; Prime Video is also prepping a Pep Guardiola docuseries with Kevin Macdonald. The move keeps Canadian commissioning active across multiple streamers.
$6.5 million in Thursday previews for Universal and Amblin’s $115 million sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day; the film is tracking to a roughly $35 million North American opening, with profitability riding on the global run and an $80 million marketing spend.
FilmLaodong.vnJun 13
Ma Xo has crossed 100 billion VND after just over a week, with distributor data showing it holding No. 1 despite foreign competition. On a roughly 20 billion VND budget, the folk-horror title is already a major Vietnamese ROI story.
FilmVietnam.vnJun 12
Phi Phong ends its theatrical run at 201 billion VND, making it the highest-grossing Vietnamese horror film to date. An accelerated release date, heavy screening allocation and strong social chatter powered the title’s breakout run.
FilmIPDaily DeadJun 13
Greg Nicotero boards Twilight of the Dead to handle special makeup effects on George A. Romero’s final zombie feature; Kate Beckinsale stars, the Paz Brothers direct, and Roundtable Entertainment is driving the package.
$42.5M three-day domestic cume and roughly $30M running worldwide through today for Universal and Amblin’s Disclosure Day; Spielberg’s original sci-fi opener is overperforming in IMAX/PLF and piling up No. 1 starts across major overseas markets. The film is tracking toward the best-ever opening for a Spielberg/Amblin original.
Apple TV+ locks a second season of Widow’s Bay after the eerie mystery clicked with audiences; Katie Dippold and Hiro Murai return with Matthew Rhys, Stephen Root, Dale Dickey and Kate O’Flynn in the ensemble.
Market & Business
4Obsession’s theatrical run keeps rewriting indie horror ROI benchmarks, with the Alabama-made breakout still drawing attention for its extraordinary legs. The box-office story is now as much about staying power as opening-weekend heat.
Obsession and Backrooms are being held up as proof that YouTube-native filmmakers can turn low-budget horror into breakout theatrical product. The piece frames the trend as a potential talent-pipeline shift for Korea’s own genre ecosystem.
Netflix’s The Boroughs pairs an alien-creature mystery with a retirement-community ensemble led by Alfred Molina, Geena Davis, Clarke Peters, Alfre Woodard and Denis O’Hare. Will Matthews and Jeffrey Addiss built the first season in a 20-week writers room with six writers plus the showrunners; James Schamus also joined the room, and the Duffers executive produce.
IndustryColliderJun 12
A24’s viral horror hit has climbed to all-time box office heights, setting a new mark for the distributor’s genre releases. Collider does not name the film in the headline.
Noteworthy
117M first-week views push an unknown Netflix thriller into hit territory; the streamer keeps proving it can manufacture sizable audiences for low-profile action-thrillers.
Cranked Up Films sets Love Is the Monster for June 23 VOD; Prime Video rental/own and other digital platforms carry Alex Noyer’s Finnish folklore horror pic, with Raven Banner handling Canada.
FilmiHorrorJun 12
Spanish-language thriller Queen of Shock lands an Official Selection slot at Dances With Films as Robyn Symon makes her narrative feature debut; the Mexico-shot story tracks a mother entering underground electrical shock matches to save her kidnapped daughter.
Universal opens Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day on 720 UK-Ireland screens, making it the widest new release in the frame and the anchor title in a soft weekend. The slate around it includes limited runs for Mubi’s The Fall Of Sir Douglas Weatherford and Netflix’s In The Hand Of Dante, plus repertory bookings from Park Circus and BFI Distribution.
Netflix lines up Ikka for July 10; Siddharth P. Malhotra directs the courtroom thriller, with Sunny Deol as the lawyer, Akshaye Khanna as his client, and Dia Mirza and Tillotama Shome in key roles.
FilmVarietyJun 13
Zhang Disha’s sci-fi feature closes Shanghai International Film Festival with a world premiere before a summer theatrical rollout in China. The astronaut thriller intercuts 2035 space emergency stakes with an earlier-era aerospace researcher tied to the crew’s survival signal.
The Ambriz brothers say their next film will be built entirely in-camera with no green screen, staking out a physical-production lane against AI-heavy workflows; del Toro also helped reshape Frankelda in post and connect the project to Netflix.
Alan Ritchson's sci-fi thriller cracks Netflix's elite viewing list, signaling durable demand for star-driven genre titles on the service.
First Evil Dead Burn teaser tees up Warner Bros.’ sixth franchise film for a July 10 North American release; Sébastien Vanicek directs from a script with Florent Bernard, with Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Lee Cronin producing. The seventh entry, Evil Dead Wrath, is already filming and is dated for April 7, 2028.
IndustryTHRJun 12
IDW expands Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees with a Halloween one-shot from Patrick Horvath, James Tynion IV, Tony Fleecs and Che Grayson; the horror-comic franchise has crossed 400,000 sales and a third volume is already in motion.
IndustryAll Hallows GeekJun 12
DreadXP and PHL Games are adapting Shudder’s Creepshow into an officially licensed PC game, arriving on Steam in August. Creative director Brian Clarke (The Mortuary Assistant) oversees the horror anthology inspired by Greg Nicotero’s series.