Why horror kills at the box office

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hollywood has always made money from vampires and brain-eating zombies. But this year's a record-breaker thanks to sequels, hilariously unlikely creators, and pure thrills. This episode was produced by Denise Guerra and Hady Mawajdeh, edited by Miranda Kennedy, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by Adriene Lilly and hosted by Jonquilyn Hill. A detail from The Conjuring Museum Of The Occult based on "The Conjuring" films. Photo by David Benito/Getty Images. If you have a question, give us a call on 1-800-618-8545 or send us a note here. Listen to Explain It to Me ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:24.7	Learn more at onepassword.com slash podcast offer.
0:29.4	That's onepassword.com slash podcast offer, all lowercase.
0:37.5	Here is a big existential question for every media company today.
0:42.7	Do they fight the AI tech overlords or do they just take their money?
0:47.4	So far, most of them are taking the money.
0:50.1	But a few are fighting.
0:51.6	One of them is Zip Davis.
0:54.1	This is Peter Kafka, the host of channels.
0:56.7	And on this week's episode, I'm talking to Ziff Davis,
0:58.8	CEO of Vek Shah, who tells me he's kind of optimistic about the media business
1:02.8	and why he's taking on the people behind ChatGBT.
1:06.4	That's this week on channels, wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
1:12.7	Anytime anyone goes into a darkened basement, people freak.
1:17.4	And yeah, I just think it's been by far the most innovative film genre of the past 15 years.
1:23.9	This is, buildings, building, building.
1:30.4	I'm John Glyn Hill. This is explained to me from Vox.
1:35.5	Okay, you guys, I'm not big on truly scary stuff.
1:40.2	I'm a little bit of a scaredy cat.
	...

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