Highest grossing horror movie (inflation-adjusted)

The highest-grossing horror movie at the international box office, after adjusting for inflation, is William Friedkin's The Exorcist (USA, 1973). This massively influential tale of demonic possession has brought in $428,824,083 at the international box office over its lifetime. (This includes the initial 1973–1975 release window, as well as wide-distribution theatrical re-releases in 1979 and 2000.) The combined inflation-adjusted gross for these various release windows adds up to approximately $1.2 billion in 2024.

The Exorcist was such a word-of-mouth sensation that people lined up overnight to get tickets. Although the studio executives had known they had a potential hit on their hands, the sheer scale of its success – particularly as it was released into the "dump months" of January and February, with other films that studios expect to fail.