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Art the Clown has become a horror icon like no other. Case in point, despite starring in unrated, ultra-gory slasher movies that have all been made and released independently, the Terrifier movies have passed a very impressive milestone. Collectively, Damien Leone’s series has now amassed more than $100 million at the global box office. Though, admittedly, one of the movies is doing the lion’s share of the work.
To date, the series has earned $102.8 million worldwide – and counting. Terrifier 3 leads the way by far, having recently entered the global top 50 for 2024 with a downright staggering $87 million. The unrated slasher is set at Christmas and managed to truly resonate with mainstream audiences. Before diving into how we got here, let’s look at the breakdown of what each of these films made, which only further shines a light on just how unlikely all of this is.
- Terrifier (2016) – $422,000 worldwide
- Terrifier 2 (2022) – $15 million worldwide
- Terrifier 3 (2024) – $87.4 million worldwide
As we can see, the growth has been exponential here. Art the Clown made his feature debut in a horror anthology titled All Hallows’ Eve, which was directed by Leone and incorporated footage from shorts he had previously made. From there, Art took center stage in Terrifier, which was released in 2016. It was at best a modest success relative to its ultra-tiny budget, but gained a cult following. It was six years later when things took a truly unexpected turn.
Teaming with Bloody Disgusting and Cineverse, Leone made Terrifier 2 in 2022. With a budget of just $250,000, he made an unrated slasher epic clocking in at 2 hours and 18 minutes. Against all odds, it became a sizable hit, taking in $15 million, which truly put this franchise on everyone’s radar. Hollywood clocked it, the film got a ton of press coverage and that paved the way for Terrifier 3. Now? Art is a full-on pop culture icon of sorts and this franchise has gone mainstream.
Naturally, Leone is going to bring Art back for at least one more installment, possibly two. Though the director has ruled out a drawn out continuation of the franchise, which is expected to end after one or two more films, depending on how things shake out.
“It will certainly be an epic showdown, an epic closure to this Art the Clown saga,” Leone previously said of Terrifier 4. “The idea I’m toying with in my head would probably be in some regards the most experimental, so I can’t dive into it too much. Some really, really crazy things will happen in the next one.”
Terrifier 4 does not currently have a release date but stay tuned. For more, check out Umbrella Entertainment’s insane Terrifier 3 box set.
