This 2025 Smash Killed Steven Spielberg’s Horror Ambitions
Steven Spielberg is often credited with inventing the summer blockbuster in 1975 with Jaws.
Across his 55-year career, the three-time Oscar winner has directed over 30 feature films, grossing more than $10.7 billion at the box office. This staggering tally makes Spielberg the number one-grossing director of all time.
Yet, there’s one genre Spielberg still dreams of tackling. He told Empire, “I haven’t directed a horror film yet, and I’ve always wanted to, and someday I may.”
Horror fans might want to hold their excitement, though. Spielberg’s plans to break into the genre might just be on hold thanks to Zach Cregger’s 2025 hit, Weapons.
Spielberg says, “When I see a great horror film like Weapons, I don’t have an itch I need to scratch... It satisfies me so completely, it actually arrests my desire to someday make a really, really scary movie.”
Weapons, Cregger’s follow-up to the 2022 cult hit Barbarian, grossed over $270 million worldwide. Deadline recently announced a prequel focused on Aunt Gladys, the character Amy Madigan won the 2026 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for portraying.
(Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Spielberg went on to gush over Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies in the exclusive interview.
“Recently, I’ve loved the Dune movies. They are among my favourite science-fiction movies, not just recently, but of all time. Especially the second film,” he said. “I think [Part Two] is the best movie Denis has ever made. I cannot wait to see the third one. I’m sure he’ll show it to me early. I’m such a fan of his.”
Spielberg will be returning to the cineplex this summer with Disclosure Day, a sci-fi adventure film starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor.
While plot details are being kept hush-hush, the film appears to center on the existence of aliens. This will be Spielberg’s fourth film about alien life, following Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and War of the Worlds (2005).