Scariest Thing in Hollywood Right Now? Missing the Brand Money in Horror
I talk to Blumhouse’s Abhijay Prakash and more pros about why advertisers are finding the genre’s loyal young fans — and modest budgets — a killer deal
I cover top dealmakers for paid subscribers. I wrote about animation’s box office boom, who’s scoring big feature film deals now and Hollywood’s coming mid-market M&A frenzy, and I interviewed WME’s indie film co-head Deborah McIntosh.
Things in Hollywood are a little scary. With content spends down, the specter of AI looming and thousands more jobs to be cut at Paramount alone, anything that provides some financial stability is appealing — and that includes brand money. Just last week my colleague Elaine Low looked at how brands have become a big factor in getting a greenlight in the world of unscripted television, and in August I surveyed the landscape of product placements and brand partnerships on the summer’s biggest tentpoles.
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Not every brand has the money to spring for a logo on Brad Pitt’s F1 racing jacket, but even the ones that do may be missing an opportunity by focusing too heavily on blockbusters and overlooking a genre with typically modest budgets and less cutthroat competition for placement and integration opportunities: horror.
Where some corporate execs may see “smaller” movies with complicated content, the dealmakers forging the relationship between Hollywood and consumer brands see a majorly underutilized marketing vehicle.
“We have put a lot of time and energy into justifying the horror space,” says Erin Schmidt, chief strategy officer for BENlabs, an AI-centric entertainment company that helps brands integrate into film, TV and influencer content.
The old school advertising mentality about avoiding gore and violence might deter some brands, so Schmidt says BENlabs leans into data with the help of AI to “take the subjectivity out of content analysis.” The company has worked on horror integrations in films including M3GAN (Skyy), M3GAN 2.0 (Cheetos, Spotify, Samsonite, Microsoft), Nope (Chevrolet), Paranormal Activity 2 (Dunkin’) and the 2025 reboot of I Know What you Did Last Summer (Tostitos), to name a few.
Schmidt isn’t personally a horror fan, but says BENlabs’ data is clear: “By ignoring this genre completely, you are ignoring a really impactful audience.”
Led by mega-hits Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Weapons and The Conjuring: Last Rites, horror crossed a billion dollars at the domestic box office this year so far — with a record 17 percent market share in North America, making it the third most popular genre behind action and adventure.
’Tis the spooky season, so in addition to Schmidt, I caught up with Superconnector Studios co-founder John Kaplan, WME’s Liz Walaszczyk, Blumhouse president Abhijay Prakash and Hollywood Branded CEO Stacy Jones to get their takes on why brand marketers, distribution execs and any producer with a gap in their budget should be making moves in this space.
Here’s what I learned from these conversations with entertainment and brand pros — for paid subscribers:
Typical deal ranges, from $50,000 indie integrations to multimillion-dollar partnerships on major IPs
The big opportunity in small-budget horror — and how thriftier shoots give brands more flexibility for their “beauty shots”
Why younger audiences flock to horror — and how the 18–40 demo lines up perfectly with marketers’ sweet spot
How even squeamish brands are learning to play in the genre — and which projects best fit their pitch
How brands can act as “creative multipliers” when the story fit is right
The spectrum of deal types, from subtle placements to full co-branded activations (and why stars are often willing to pitch in — for a price)
The two pathways to scale in horror integrations
How off-screen partnerships can deliver the same impact as on-screen placement
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