Shark Horror Movies Managed to Make a Bit of a Splash in 2024

It seems as though there isn’t ever an end to what filmmakers can do when there are sharks involved. Nor does it seem like movie lovers of any and all standards have yet had enough of the toothy denizens of the deep. After all, if there wasn’t an appetite for these flicks, they wouldn’t continue to get funding.

Of course, we’ve always got a stream of B-movie shark films coming out, from the mutated shark flicks like the Sharktopus movies to the zanier Sharknado and even supernatural sharks. Then, there are the blockbusters. With releases in 2018 and 2023, The Meg and Meg 2 made over $920 million worldwide, per The Numbers.

While it could be a case of sensing blood in the water, or that sharks never fail to grab the attention of audiences, 2024 seems to have been quite the year for sharks in the horror genre.

Building an Ever-Present Shark Obsession

Of course, the obsession with sharks on the big screen, let alone just in the horror genre of film, starts with Jaws. Aside from the incredible feat of actually building the shark for the film – an art that’s seemingly lost in the sea of CGI sludge we now get – and writing a compelling story around this monstrous creature, it proved Hollywood wrong.

At the time, it was all about exclusive screenings and keeping the best releases for the colder months. Jaws came out in the summer, hit over 400 theatres in the US, and became the first to cross the $100 million mark domestically. Thus, the summer blockbuster was born, as well as the open invitation to make shark movies.

It’s quite possibly because of Jaws – or at least, the success of the two are down to our ever-present fascination – that Discovery enjoys huge viewing spikes every year for the last 36 years thanks to Shark Week. Often with new documentaries and sometimes a fabricated show or two, it never fails to draw in huge audiences.

This year, it was headlined by Monster Hammerheads: Species X, and last year, over 22 million tuned in to break a three-year record. Shark Week is now a pop culture staple, much like Jaws. The people love it, even to the extent that it can branch out from TV and into the buzzing space of Slingo slots with the hit game Shark Week Slingo.

Shark Fans Feasted in 2024

This year, three shark movies were released into horror genre, pivoting back to more of a Jaws approach than that showcased in the comedy sphere by The Meg and Meg 2: The Trench. It began with No Way Up in February. The survival thriller actually put forward a very promising premise, but failed to deliver.

Still, it’s now said to boast a cult following, so it’ll likely get a sequel. Next up was a straight-to-Netflix French film, Under Paris. This mix of action and horror flick gained traction with mainstream outlets as it climbed the streamer’s charts, and pretty delivered a solid shark film outing.

Finally, a few weeks after Under Paris came to streamers in early June, Something in the Water has a limited box office run and was met by middling to fairly good reviews. Some lamented its lack of surprises and jumps, but others enjoyed the tension between characters as the tension built around their stranding.

With three shark horror movies each having something to like, and one proving quite popular, it’s been a surprisingly good year for sharks on film.