Michael Jackson's Thriller

Name: Michael Jackson's Thriller
Director: John Landis
Genre: Horror, Music, Thriller
Released: 1983-11-21
Duration: 14 min
Rating: 8.3
Cast: Michael Jackson, Ola Ray, Vincent Price, Cynthia Garris, Mick Garris

November 21, 1983PG0h 14mTMDB ★ 8.3

Letterboxd

4.47/5

81843 reviews

4.47/5 Trailer

A night at the movies turns terrifying when Michael and his date are attacked by zombies. Released at the height of Thriller’s success, the short film redefined the music video, broke racial barriers, and became the first inducted into the U.S. National Film Registry.

Genres

Horror, Music, Thriller

Studio

Optimum Productions

Language

Status

Released

Box Office

How Michael Jackson's Thriller performed

Budget

$500,000

Worldwide Gross

$76.0M

Gross Profit

$75.5M

Return

152.0× budget

Opening Wknd (est.)

$15M

Domestic (est.)

International (est.)

$33M$43M

Source: TMDB. Domestic/international split (~44/56, genre-typical) and the opening-weekend figure (45% of the domestic run, typical for Horror) are MoviesRankd estimates. Profit is gross revenue minus production budget and excludes marketing — studios typically need ~2–2.5× budget to break even.