By the numbers

Found footage in numbers

Everything below is counted from the 1,169 films in our database, so it grows with every film we add. It's our collection, not every found footage film ever made - but it's a big part of it.

1,169films
64countries
53languages
1,156directors in total
1,602hours of footage

Films per year

The boom started after Paranormal Activity (2009 in cinemas) and peaked in 2024 with 86 films. 35 films are from before 1999 - the oldest is from 1961. 3 more are announced for the coming years.

Peak year (2024)2026 so farOther yearsHover a column for its number, click to open that decade.

  1. 19996
  2. 20009
  3. 20017
  4. 200210
  5. 20039
  6. 20048
  7. 200511
  8. 200612
  9. 200718
  10. 200813
  11. 200915
  12. 201035
  13. 201139
  14. 201264
  15. 201384
  16. 201477
  17. 201562
  18. 201658
  19. 201745
  20. 201860
  21. 201944
  22. 202061
  23. 202155
  24. 202266
  25. 202352
  26. 202486
  27. 202571
  28. 2026 (so far)54

How it was filmed

Camera formats as a share of all 1,169 films. Many films use more than one, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

  1. Documentary35630%
  2. Camcorder16914%
  3. Handheld Camera938%
  4. Security Camera787%
  5. Webcam605%
  6. TV Show Footage535%
  7. Home Video524%
  8. Computer Screen424%
  9. Livestream313%
  10. News Camera313%
  11. Phone Camera303%
  12. Head Camera232%
  13. Night Vision171%
  14. Bodycam101%
  15. Film Camera (16mm / Super 8)71%

What it's about

The 12 biggest subgenres as a share of all films. A film can have several.

  1. Mockumentary33128%
  2. Supernatural29225%
  3. Lost Tapes12010%
  4. Haunted Location998%
  5. Ghost Hunting867%
  6. Monster797%
  7. Haunting726%
  8. Screenlife686%
  9. Anthology555%
  10. Possession555%
  11. Aliens535%
  12. Psychological444%

How filming changed

The share of each decade's films that use a camera format. Note: the 1990s column is based on only 26 films, so a few films move it a lot.

Camera format1990s26 films2000s112 films2010s568 films2020s445 films
Camcorder23.1%25.0%18.0%7.2%
Home Video11.5%7.1%4.0%3.6%
Security Camera-5.4%8.6%4.9%
Webcam-1.8%3.5%8.5%
Computer Screen-0.9%2.3%6.3%
Phone Camera--3.0%2.9%
Livestream--1.2%5.4%

Bold: the decade in which that format was most common.

Biggest series

The 10 series with the most films on the site.

  1. 1Tokyo Videos of Horror25 films
  2. 2Bad Ben14 films
  3. 3Jack Hunter's Paranoia Tapes10 films
  4. 4Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi!10 films
  5. 5V/H/S9 films
  6. 6Paranormal Activity8 films
  7. 7The Blackwell Ghost8 films
  8. 8Blair Witch5 films
  9. 9I'm Haunted5 films
  10. 10Hell House LLC4 films

Busiest directors

The 10 directors with the most found footage films on the site.

  1. 1Kazuto Kodama25 films
  2. 2Kōji Shiraishi21 films
  3. 3Nigel Bach14 films
  4. 4Jack Hunter II10 films
  5. 5József Gallai9 films
  6. 6Turner Clay9 films
  7. 7Brendan Rudnicki7 films
  8. 8Dillon Brown6 films
  9. 9Isaac Rodriguez6 films
  10. 10Michael Rock6 films
All 118 directors with 2+ films →

Where it's from

The 12 biggest of 64 countries as a share of all films. Co-productions count for each country.

Top 12 countries

  1. United States71561%
  2. United Kingdom12311%
  3. Canada706%
  4. Japan595%
  5. Australia282%
  6. France192%
  7. Spain161%
  8. Germany141%
  9. India131%
  10. Ireland121%
  11. Italy111%
  12. South Korea101%

Languages: 84% of the films are in English. The next most common are Japanese (62), Spanish (41), French (20), German (16), out of 53 languages in total.

Small budgets, big box office

Worldwide box office of the 54 films with a known figure (33 with a known budget too), not adjusted for inflation.

Highest-grossing found footage films

  1. 1The Blair Witch Project(1999)$248.6M
  2. 2Paranormal Activity 3(2011)$207M
  3. 3Paranormal Activity(2007)$193.4M
  4. 4Paranormal Activity 2(2010)$177.5M
  5. 5Cloverfield(2008)$172.4M

Box office vs. budget

  1. 1Paranormal Activity(2007)12,893x its budget
  2. 2The Blair Witch Project(1999)4,143x its budget
  3. 3The Gallows(2015)430x its budget
  4. 4The Devil Inside(2012)102x its budget
  5. 5Searching(2018)86x its budget

Worldwide box office divided by the production budget, both as listed by Box Office Mojo. This is not profit: cinemas keep part of the ticket money and marketing costs aren't included. The tiniest budgets are the original shoot costs - The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity cost a few hundred thousand dollars in the end once reshoots, post-production and new endings were paid.

Running times

The average found footage film runs 83 minutes (1h 23m). Watching all 1,162 films with a known running time back to back would take 66.8 days.

Shortest

  1. 1The Burkittsville 7(2000)40m
  2. 2Curse of the Blair Witch(1999)44m
  3. 3Souvenir(2025)45m

Longest

  1. 1Vampires Are Real(2020)2h 22m
  2. 2Dabbe 4: The Possession(2013)2h 14m
  3. 3The Medium(2021)2h 11m

Counted from the films published on FoundFootageFinder and updated automatically when films are added. Box office and budgets as listed by Box Office Mojo; films without a known figure are left out.