On This Day

Dracula released

February 14th 1931

07:17 14 February 2024

Tod Browning's 'Dracula' opened in US theaters on this day in 1931. Based on a 1924 stage play by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn was adapted from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel, the classic Universal Pictures version stars Bela Lugosi as the bloodthirsty Count.

The movie was considered a big gamble for a major Hollywood studio with doubts that audiences were ready for a full length supernatural horror film. Following its release, reports began to circulate of audience members fainting as the onscreen horror unfolded.

Universal shrewdly used the publicity to their advantage and 'Dracula' went on to become the studio's most profitable film of the year.