A big question to ponder, thanks to this weekend’s emerging box office figures. What happened to the horror movie audience? Where did they go?

For most of this millenium, this has been the most reliable corner of the movie-going public, with most titles opening in the $17-20 million range, and sequels to established franchises rolling in $25-27 million+ on their first weekend.

In recent months, we’ve had “Immaculate,” “The First Omen” and now “Abigail” open at $11 million or under.

There was a time if you put an actress in a nun’s habit and made her scary or had scary things happen to her, it was money in the bank. You’d reboot an “Exorcist,””Halloween,” “Scream” or now “Omen,” you’d automatically sell lots of tickets.

Now, you’ve got a bloody-minded vampire comedy with a monstrous child and reliable, “name” talent in the supporting cast. And it may claw its way to a box office win. But maybe it won’t.

As of Sat. AM, the race is too close to call, based on previews and Friday’s take. “Abigail,” with good reviews and a being new film in a formerly reliable genre, still has the edge.

The jaunty “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” was thought to have a shot at $11 million. It too earned good reviews and is a fun night out for action fans. But Deadline is suggesting that Friday’s take means it’ll be lucky to clear $9.

And the more serious “Civil War,” even with a political edge that won’t appeal to all, is holding audience thanks to good reviews and decent word of mouth and may earn another $11 million after opening in the $26 million range last weekend.

Saturday’s numbers will be the tell here, with “Civil War” the most likely to steal first place from “Abigail” and those who would kill her.

With the fading appeal of comic book movies, one can see genre fatigue settling in. Filmmakers have run out of things to say and do in these films and their once-reliable audience is getting wise and — relatively speaking — moving on. They’re still making money, but they’re not guaranteed to make bank.

Horror fans haven’t all flocked to streaming. The big site Shudder has endured huge layoffs in recent years.

Is inflation chasing the horror crowd off? Movies are still a relative bargain, but did theater chains leap past a price point that makes younger viewers, teen couples and older fans of the genre wince?

There’s also the possibility that the audience is tired of these films, that at least part of that audience has outgrown the movies, and that big stinkers such as the latter “Halloweens” and endlessly recycled “Insidious” et al franchises have scared fans off.

I wonder. With studios setting up boutique nameplates such as Blumhouse, and reviving distributor brands just to service the horror side of the business, Hollywood has to be concerned, too.

“Godzilla x Kong” will pull in another $8.5 million and change, meaning that Dan Stevens stars in two thrillers (“Abigail”) in the top five this weekend.

A new anime release “Spy x Family Code: White” is drawing the anime faithful to the tune of $5 million or so. They’re showing this on a lot of IMAX screens, oddly enough.

The “Ghostbusters” and “Kung Fu Panda” sequels won’t crack the top five this weekend, and are finally fading away.

As always, I’ll update this post as other data comes in from Box Office Pro, deadline.come and others.