Weekend Preview: How ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’ Reveals Horror Sequel Trends

We’re roughly three-quarters into 2026, and the power of the horror film is one trend from last that has definitely kept the course from year-to-year. But is that trend actually a consistent one in 2026? The successive hits in Obsession and Backrooms easily matched, and even topped, the similar one-two punch from Sinners to Weapons. However, although notable original horror or horror based on new IP is making a splash this year, previously solid franchises in this space appear to be slipping in their usual reliability. With an audience that is more primed for horror than ever, are there any signals as to how Insidious: Out of the Further will fare compared to other horror franchise sequels or what can be done to overcome a potential bump for horror franchises?

Last year’s horror sequels held a relatively steady trend. There was the solid-performing Black Phone 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 enjoyed a high opening weekend in the normally dead post-Thanksgiving window , and The Conjuring: Last Rites delivered by far and away a franchise-high performer. In 2026, unless the horror franchise included a Ghostface (including both a franchise-high opening for Scary Movie and a franchise-high performer for Scream 7), sequels and continuations such as The Strangers: Chapter 3, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, and Evil Dead Burn each failed to match the openings or domestic runs of each of their predecessors. Some even fell as much as half of the previous installments. Why the shift? 

The horror franchise audience of the last year definitely follows a pattern despite the vast degrees of different turnouts when isolating audiences with Interest and/or Theatrical Intent. .Black Phone 2 and The Conjuring: Last Rites had nearly identical Interest and Intent profiles despite the latter opening more than three times larger. This year, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come had slightly larger Interest and Intent than 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, yet Bone Temple opened more than $3 million higher. With Insidious: Out of the Further comfortably fitting the pattern, slotting somewhere between Black Phone 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Bone Temple, and Evil Dead Burn, we have to see where the momentum between the overperformers and the rest lies.

Normally, Awareness does not tell even close to the whole story of a film’s performance. Intent is the driver while Awareness contributes to the scope, ensuring whether a film has an increased likelihood of being a big performer or whether the target audience is the engaged audience. However, for this horror franchise audience comparison, awareness is actually one of the main contributing factors to the opening divides. 

For the overperformers in this sequel comparison, awareness dominated not only among frequent moviegoers but for all consumers in general. Only films opening near $30 million or above (including Black Phone 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Scream 7, and The Conjuring: Last Rites) achieved over 50% awareness among casual moviegoers and over 40% awareness among infrequent moviegoers. For those franchise installments, they broke out of the mold of a dime a dozen horror sequels to reach event-level status. Insidious, meanwhile, has achieved awareness rates among frequent, casual, and infrequent moviegoers that again fit right between Black Phone 2, Evil Dead Burn, and Bone Temple. The same goes for Interest and Intent.

Awareness here becomes the backbone of the Intent among the aware group. Overall, most of the films have similar rates among frequent and casual moviegoers generally at least 10% within each other or closer. But larger awareness paired with larger rates of Intent among Aware naturally leads to better opportunities for success even when sharing similar rates with the smaller horror sequels. For example, although Evil Dead Burn’s and Black Phone 2’s rates of Intent Among Aware run relatively close to one another, Black Phone 2’s solid 20%+ gap in general awareness among all moviegoers helps explain why it opened nearly twice as much to Evil Dead Burn. Here, for Insidious, its advantage appears to be in converting its aware infrequent moviegoers. Eliciting better Intent among Aware than the other films with similar infrequent moviegoer awareness rates and among the other comparable films in general, is the key. 

But wait—there’s more! We can dive into specific layers of Intent, including Opening Weekend Intent and PLF Intent, where similar patterns among the aware groups emerge. Insidious’ advantage here appears not only among infrequent moviegoers but PLF intent among the aware group overall, as the only film on the list to have significant growth between the Opening Weekend Intent and PLF Intent among all moviegoers. The additional PLF Intent, especially among infrequent moviegoers who are aware, could help Insidious bridge the gap between it, Black Phone 2, and the other higher performers for its opening weekend.

Awareness generally means nothing without the Interest or Intent to back it up. But Awareness still holds its own significance in a film’s performance, whether it be a solid franchise entry or huge overperformer. Solid awareness bases help to ensure that the relatively consistent rates of intent among aware moviegoers represent a significantly-sized turnout audience. Should a rate of intent among aware go significantly over or under the expected norms of the genre, the actual awareness brings perspective to the rates’ performances and gives better insight to the film’s potential performance. 

Insidious: Out of the Further sits right in-line with some of the other horror franchises, hoping to bridge any gaps with its own solid awareness among the general public to get a solid Black Phone 2-level performance or higher. Although the horror audience willing to see a film stays relatively consistent from franchise to franchise, the rates of awareness and rates among awareness become some of the signals for true solid performers and overperformers.