Good morning. The French police made arrests in connection with the Louvre heist, the authorities said. We’ll start there, and then take a deeper look at the growing prominence of horror movies in Hollywood.
News from the LouvreThe police have made arrests in the Louvre jewelry heist, the French authorities said. One man was arrested at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport as he was trying to leave the country, the Paris prosecutor said. It is unclear how many people were arrested in the robbery; she said that it was too early to provide further details and that she would provide more information after the police finish questioning the suspects. It was not immediately clear if the police had recovered the jewelry, which is worth more than $100 million. This is a developing story. Read updates here on the breakthrough in a case that has put an uncomfortable spotlight on security lapses at the museum. For more:
Favorite hauntsIt’s the season for scary movies. After I put my kid to bed on Friday, I plan to watch “The Shining” for the 300th time. Maybe you’re planning a “Friday the 13th” marathon. The home screen of every streaming service is full of options this week. But for Hollywood, spooky season is a year-round affair. As the movie industry struggles to get people into theaters, horror is a bright spot. The genre has accounted for a growing share of ticket sales over the past decade. And this year, it hit a new high — 17 percent of the U.S. box office, more than drama and comedy combined. Why is horror soaring? I asked Brooks Barnes, The Times’s chief Hollywood correspondent, to help me understand. Tom: First, we should establish some horror bona fides. Do you have a favorite scary movie? Is there a limit to how scary you can go? Brooks: I have a gore limit. My horror sweet spot is probably creeping dread, like when Clarice descends into the basement in “The Silence of the Lambs,” or when the cemetery Rottweilers are circling in the original “Omen.” My first horror movie was “Children of the Corn,” which I rented on VHS in secret as a fifth grader and watched alone. You must have been terrified by yourself! People like getting scared together at the movies, right? I checked the Times archives from 1974, after “The Exorcist” came out, and we wrote that the movie was “drawing long lines at box offices from coast to coast.” Horror has helped float Hollywood for generations, from the classic monsters of the 1930s to the B movies of the 1950s to the slasher films of the ’80s to the current boom in what I would call auteur horror — complex originals like “Sinners” or “Get Out.” And the reason is simple: It’s fun to be scared with other people. These movies play well in a crowded, dark room. Date night is also a factor: I’m scared! Let’s hold hands! So what is going on with horror now? What makes this moment different? Horror has become one of Hollywood’s last reliable ticket sellers. Dramas have almost disappeared from theaters — people are happy to watch those on streaming — but it’s hard to replicate that group scare dynamic at home. So studios have started to make more horror movies, which have the added benefit of being cheap to produce. Thirty-five will arrive in wide release this year, up from 18 in 2018.
How much horror is too much? Is there a limit? Absolutely, and we’ve probably reached it. There have been big horror hits recently — “The Conjuring: Last Rites” is currently hovering around $500 million worldwide, and “Weapons,” an original about vanished children, has taken in $267 million. But there have also been a lot of flops. Those include “Wolf Man,” “M3GAN 2.0,” “The Woman in the Yard,” “Him” and “The Toxic Avenger.” Some of them were just bad movies, but the number of disappointments suggests market oversaturation. At-home streaming and rentals are a big reason people stopped going to theaters. Do we know if horror movies are performing well there, too? They perform OK in the home, in part because they’re perennials — people go looking for scary movies to watch around Halloween every year. Studios also time theatrical releases with home viewing in mind: “Weapons” and “The Conjuring: Last Rites” came out in theaters in August and September in part so they would arrive on streaming and rental platforms right about now. Over my husband’s objections, I paid $20 to rent “Last Rites” on Monday night. Objections? Why? $20 for a digital rental? That’s horrifying! More on spooky season
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