Dark Castle Entertainment is a film production label of OEG Inc. It was founded in 1998 originally as a film production company by producers Joel Silver & Gilbert Adler and filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, with most of its productions centered on horror films, the majority of which were distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler. The Dark Castle name pays homage to William Castle, a horror filmmaker from the 1950s and 1960s. and Thirteen Ghosts, they moved on to producing original material, along with remakes of non-Castle films.
2003–2013: More horror, action
Gothika, starring Halle Berry and Robert Downey Jr., was Dark Castle's first original film in 2003.
In 2008, the company moved beyond the horror genre to produce the action film RocknRolla.
In 2009, Dark Castle released the psychological horror film Orphan. The film grossed $80 million on a $20 million budget. Later that year, the company produced its first martial arts film, Ninja Assassin.
In 2010, they produced action film adaptions of The Losers based on the DC Vertigo comic of the same name, and Unknown starring Liam Neeson, which grossed $136 million against its $30 million budget.
After a long relationship with Warner Bros. Pictures as their main distributor, The second film in the distribution deal was originally going to be The Loft, a third-party film to which Dark Castle acquired the U.S distribution rights (as they did for Splice). Universal planned to release The Loft on August 29, 2014, but the studio pulled it from the schedule in favor of Legendary Pictures' As Above, So Below. Universal and Dark Castle sold the distribution rights to Open Road Films, who then released The Loft on January 30, 2015. Afterward, the Universal-Silver partnership was terminated, leaving Non-Stop as the only film to come out of it.
2015–present: New ownership and commercial success
Dark Castle, with its then-parent company Silver Pictures, were acquired by Daryl Katz of OEG Inc. in 2015.
Next, Dark Castle produced the black comedy crime film Suburbicon directed by George Clooney, written by the Coen Brothers, and starring Matt Damon and Julianne Moore.
In 2018, Dark Castle produced Superfly, a remake of the 1972 film Super Fly.
Dark Castle continued to produce horror films, including Seance, starring Suki Waterhouse, and the prequel to Orphan, Orphan: First Kill, starring Isabelle Fuhrman from the original movie. In 2020, the company began producing television with the sci-fi horror series The Expecting.
In 2023, the company filmed Old Guy starring Christoph Waltz, and financed the films Shell, starring Elisabeth Moss and Kate Hudson, and directed by Max Minghella, and Last Breath, which is based on the documentary Last Breath and stars Woody Harrelson and Simu Liu.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="background:#b0c4de; text-align:center;"
! Release date
! Film
! Director(s)
! Distributor
|-
| October 29, 1999
| House on Haunted Hill
| William Malone
| Warner Bros. Pictures/Sony Pictures
|-
| October 25, 2002
| Ghost Ship
|Warner Bros. Pictures
|-
| November 21, 2003
| Gothika
| Mathieu Kassovitz
| Warner Bros. Pictures/Sony Pictures
|-
| May 6, 2005
| House of Wax
| Jaume Collet-Serra
| rowspan="2" | Warner Bros. Pictures
|-
| April 5, 2007
| The Reaping
| Stephen Hopkins
|-
| October 16, 2007
| Return to House on Haunted Hill
| Víctor Garcia
| Warner Premiere
|-
| October 8, 2008
| RocknRolla
| Guy Ritchie
| Warner Bros. Pictures
|-
| February 27, 2009
| Echelon Conspiracy
| Greg Marcks
| After Dark Films
|-
| July 24, 2009
| Orphan
| Jaume Collet-Serra
|-
| September 29, 2009
| The Hills Run Red
| Dave Parker
| Warner Premiere
|-
| November 25, 2009
| Ninja Assassin
| James McTeigue
| Gaumont/Warner Bros. Pictures
|-
| February 18, 2011
| Unknown
| Jaume Collet-Serra
| rowspan="5" | Warner Bros. Pictures
|-
| August 24, 2012
| The Apparition
| Todd Lincoln
|-
| February 1, 2013
| Bullet to the Head
| Walter Hill
|-
| February 19, 2013
| The Factory
| Morgan O'Neill
|-
| August 30, 2013
| Getaway
| Courtney Solomon
|-
| October 27, 2017
| Suburbicon
| George Clooney
| Paramount Pictures
| Mary Harron
| The Roku Channel
|-
| May 21, 2021
| Seance
| Simon Barrett
| RLJE Films
|-
| August 19, 2022
| Orphan: First Kill
| William Brent Bell
| Paramount Pictures
|-
| February 21, 2025
| Old Guy
| Simon West
| The Avenue
| Focus Features/Elevation Pictures
|-
| October 3, 2025
| Shell
| Max Minghella
| Republic Pictures
|-
| January 30, 2026
| Worldbreaker
| Brad Anderson
| Aura Entertainment
|-
! colspan="4" | Upcoming
|-
| TBA
| The Zealot
| Vadim Perelman
| Vertical
|-
| TBA
| Orphans
| William Brent Bell
| Republic Pictures/Lionsgate
|}
Lifetime grosses
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Film
! Budget
! Domestic Box Office
! Foreign Box Office
! Total
! US DVD sales
! Total (with DVD sales)
|-
| 1999
| House on Haunted Hill
| $37 million
| $40.8 million
| $3.5 million (A)
| $44.4 million
| N/A
| N/A
|-
| 2001
| Thirteen Ghosts
| $42 million
| $41.7 million
| $26.6 million
| $68.5 million
| N/A
| N/A
|-
| 2002
| Ghost Ship
| $20 million
| $30.1 million
| $38.2 million
| $81.7 million
| $36.7 million
| $37.6 million
| $82.6 million
|-
| 2008
| RocknRolla
| $15 million
| $5.7 million
| $20 million
| $25.7 million
| $7.4 million
| $33.1 million
|-
| 2009
| Orphan
| $20 million
| $41,596,251
| $36,741,122
| $7,565,229
| $21,033,801
|-
| 2009
| Ninja Assassin
| $50 million
| $38,122,883
| $23,471,000
| $61,593,883
| $13,841,623
| $75,435,506
|-
| 2010
| The Losers
| $25 million
| $23,591,432
| $5,385,903
| $28,977,335
| $6,462,496
| $35,439,831
|-
| 2010
| Splice
| $30 million
| $17,010,170
| $6,964,022
| $23,974,192
| $3,695,686
| $27,669,878
|-
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Budget
! Overall Total
! US DVD Sales
! Total
|-
| $374 million
| $646 million
| $62.9 million
| $708 million
|}
(A) Indicates minimum, as that is only two countries totals merged.