Since 2010, the Insidious franchise has been terrifying and exhilarating audiences worldwide, amassing over $542 million at the box office from just the first four films alone. That’s a pretty impressive return on a combined total budget of only $26.5 million. Created by Leigh Whannell, (who also appears in the first four films as “Specs,” one of the paranormal investigators), the supernatural thriller franchise utilizes makeup, practical effects, CGI, and old-school camera tricks to fill audiences with dread and make them jump out of their seats.
The first Insidious movie, directed by James Wan, was made on a $1.5 million budget and brought in $100.1 million. Insidious: Chapter 2, also directed by Wan, had a larger budget of $5 million and an even larger box office reception of $161.9 million. The third film in the franchise, Insidious: Chapter 3 was the first of the movies to be both written and directed by Whannell on an $11 million budget and a return of $113 million. Insidious: The Last Key, released in 2018, was directed by Adam Robitel on a budget of $10 million and received $167.9 million at the box office.
Now that the fifth installment, Insidious: The Red Door has had its theatrical release, how will those numbers change? The film ended up opening to an impressive $32.6 million at the US box office and has already made $64 million worldwide. All we can do is take a good look at the budget and how that money was used. This article will walk you through the budget distribution and give you an idea of how much more money this film will earn at the box office.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on July 18, 2023.
Release Date 2023-07-07
Director Patrick Wilson
Cast Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Andrew Astor
Rating PG-13
Runtime 107 minutes
Main Genre Horror
Genres Horror, Thriller
What Was the Original Budget for Insidious: The Red Door?
In his directorial debut, Patrick Wilson (who also stars as Josh Lambert) pulled a John Hammond and “spared no expense” with the largest budget in the franchise. The budget for Insidious: The Red Door tops the previous films with a budget of $16 million. Compared to other movies like Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, which had a budget of $250-300 million, it doesn’t seem like much. Still, Insidious films have always had modest budgets with considerable returns on investments. Insidious is the second-most profitable horror franchise after the Paranormal Activity franchise, with a 20.9x rate of return.
How Much Did The Cast Get Paid?
With most of the cast from the original Insidious returning, there are bound to be increases to their salaries. Let’s take a look at who has returned to reprise their roles and see who’s new to the franchise. In addition to the main cast’s salaries listed below, the cast payment from the budget is probably around $2 million.
Patrick Wilson
Wilson is reported to make around $500,000 per film, but on top of his performance as an actor, he will also be adding a directorial salary to his paycheck. Depending on their experience, directors can make anywhere from $250,000 to $2 million per movie. New directors usually earn around $250,000 to $500,000 per project, but it appears that Wilson’s total salary for the movie is going to be $400,000.
Lin Shaye
As of right now, Lin Shaye is at the top of People With Money’s annual list of “10 Highest-Paid Actresses,” in 2023, earning $75 million between June 2022 and June 2023. She beat her closest competition by nearly $40 million. That being said, Shaye does not disclose how much money she is paid per project, but as the only member of the Insidious cast who appeared in all five films, it’s surprising that her salary for this film is supposedly only $200,000.
Ty Simpkins
Ty Simpkins has been in four of the Insidious films as Dalton Lambert. The 21-year-old actor reportedly had a base salary of $200,000 for his role in Jurassic World, but that movie had a much larger budget of $200 million. It’s possible that he will earn the same amount for Insidious: The Red Door, considering the success of the franchise. As the lead role, however, Simpkins might be getting paid $600,000 for this film, making him the highest-paid actor in the project.
Rose Byrne
Reprising her role as Renai Lambert, Rose Byrne is an Australian actress who has been rising in popularity lately. She reportedly earned $500,000 for her role in the 2014 film Annie, but if you take into consideration the cumulative rate of inflation between 2014 and now (as well as her career progression) that same amount today would be roughly $642,000. Unfortunately, that’s not always how things work. For the fifth chapter of the Insidious franchise, it’s looking like her salary is $320,000.
Andrew Astor
Andrew Astor only appeared in the first two films of the Insidious franchise as Foster Lambert, Dalton’s brother. His salaries for the first and second films are not available, but his salary for Insidious: The Red Door will supposedly be $200,000.
Hiam Abbass
Hiam Abbass (Blade Runner 2049) is new to the Insidious franchise and will be playing the role of Professor Armagan, one of Dalton’s professors at his new college. She will reportedly be earning $120,000 for this film.
Where Else Does the Budget Go To?
There are many different factors that influence how a budget is spent, depending on the project. You have to take into consideration the cost of travel and hotels for the cast and crew members during filming, the cost of special effects, marketing costs, lighting, safety consultants, post-production, and much more. Insidious: The Red Door was primarily filmed in New Jersey, so they didn’t have to fly the cast and crew to some far-off exotic island like New Zealand or Thailand to film.
SOUND – One interesting factor is the fact that the composer of the haunting score, Joseph Bishara, created the unique sound by playing around with an old abandoned piano that he found in an alley that he refers to as the “rust piano,” which probably saved a few bucks in the music department. Doubling down, the composer also portrayed the Lipstick-Face Demon in the first, third, and fourth films of the Insidious franchise.
MARKETING – The marketing budget was most likely relatively inexpensive, as the fifth installment of an already-beloved franchise already has devoted fans. In the weeks building up to the theatrical release, there were ads featuring the trailer and release date on social media platforms such as Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, in which the cost was likely a mere drop in the bucket.
EFFECTS – The use of practical effects and old-school camera tricks, helps keep the Insidious movies on a low budget. However, after-effects, CGI, and de-aging processes probably take a large bite out of the funding, as they require a lot of time and energy to do correctly. Fortunately, Insidious movies don’t rely heavily on CGI to make their audiences scream.
How Much Does Insidious: The Red Door Have To Make To Break Even?
With a budget of $16 million and a franchise history of over 20x return rates at the box office, breaking even should come easily for the fifth installment. Since the film has already made $120 million at the worldwide box office, the film is already a major win for Sony Pictures and Blumhouse.
Fortunately for Insidious: The Red Door, it is the only blockbuster horror movie that is coming out this summer. Additionally, the return of the original cast members will also likely entice fans to return to “The Further” one last time. Each previous installment in the franchise has been met with financial success, so it’s looking positive for the fifth film.
