Barbie a hot Halloween costume as Americans plan to spend $4 billion dressing up

NRF’s annual survey conducted with Prosper Insights & Analytics asked over 8,000 consumers about their Halloween shopping plans between Sept. 1-6 this year. One reason for the spike in spending is that a record number of people (73%) said that they’re participating in the October holiday, which is up from 69% last year. And folks plan to spend $108.24 apiece for frightful and fun festivities, which is almost $6 more than last year’s record-setting $102.74 per person. 

“More Americans than ever will be reaching into their wallets and spending a record amount of money to celebrate Halloween this year,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement. 

So what are we dropping so much money on for Halloween? Costumes, of course, with Americans expected to drop $4.1 billion on dressing up. And it’s not all costumes for kids going trick-or-treating, either; half of that is marked for adult costumes ($2 billion) — an 18% increase over last year — while the anticipated spending for kids’ costumes is $1.4 billion, which is up 20% from the year before. And the NRF also sees people spending $700 million on pet costumes, which is on par with last Halloween. 

One thing of note: The summertime success of the Warner Bros. “Barbie” movie seems to be spilling over into autumn, as the NRF says 1.8 million adults plan to dress up as the titular doll this year. The most popular adult costumes overall, however, are witches (more than 5.8 million) and vampires (almost 2.4 million), with caped crusader Batman (more than 1.4 million) and cats (1.3 million) rounding out the top five outfit choices.

Read more: How Barbie conquered America

And: There’s a new star of the U.S. economy this summer: women. ‘Is this how men have always felt?’

But kids are all about Spider-Man (2.6 million), princesses (2 million) and ghosts (1.6 million) — although Wednesday Addams also landed in the top 10 children’s Halloween costume choices this year, perhaps due to the popularity of the recent Netflix
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series “Wednesday,” since there hasn’t been a new “Addams Family” movie for a couple of years. Nintendo mascot Mario is up there, too, likely off of the success of the blockbuster “Super Mario Bros. Movie” earlier this year.

Candy is another key Halloween expense, and Americans are expected to spend a collective $3.6 billion on treats to hand out, which is up from $3.1 billion last year. 

But folks are also laying out plenty of cash on decorations to get into the spooky spirit — a trend that really grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NRF says, which continues to resonate with consumers. Spending on Halloween decor is expected to hit $3.9 billion, with more than three-quarters (77%) of those celebrating Halloween planning to decorate, which is fairly unchanged from last year — but is up from 72% in 2019. 

What’s more, people have even started shopping for Halloween earlier. Nearly half (45%) of those celebrating plan to start shopping before October, the NRF said, which is similar to last year — but up from just 33% a decade ago.  

From the archives (July 2022): Why Home Depot’s 12-foot Halloween skeleton is already on sale — and he’s not alone

“Younger consumers are eager to begin their Halloween shopping, with more than half of those ages 25-44 planning to shop before or during September,” Prosper executive vice president of strategy Phil Rist said in a statement. “Social media continues to grow as a source of costume inspiration for younger consumers, as more people under 25 are turning to TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram for ideas.”

Google noted earlier this week that Halloween nail art has already started to trend, and is the second top-trending search relating to “nail art.”

One reason for more people getting a jump-start on Halloween shopping is that holiday shopping, in general, creeps earlier and earlier. Bankrate reports that half of December holiday shoppers will begin buying gifts and other festive accouterments before Halloween this year — which pushes Halloween shopping even earlier.

Indeed, retailers including Amazon
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Best Buy
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and Target
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have been moving up their annual holiday savings events to October, instead of waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in November. And as Marshal Cohen, the chief retail industry adviser for the NPD Group (now Circana), previously told MarketWatch: “Retailers have to take the [shelf] space from Halloween and give it to holiday, so retailers say, let’s push Halloween earlier.”

At least Americans are already in the Halloween spirit.