This year, scary clowns, scary dolls and scary suburbanites have drawn audiences to the movies in droves. Even with two months remaining, has already become the biggest box office year ever for horror. How has horror fared at the box office in previous decades? Box Office Mojo breaks horror down into 10 subcategories on its site and its editor, Brad Brevet, has struggled with the question of hiw constitutes a horror movie. He tried to bring some clarity with a new monwy. We used the R-rated list as a reference point, but the highest-grossing year for each decade is based on figures collected from all the films the site considers horror. And it was really films released later in the decade that would prove pivotal. That film captured a mass audience with a return of sorts to the creature hkw of classic horror.