{"id":797516,"date":"2026-03-01T19:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T19:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/797516\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T19:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T19:30:15","slug":"scream-7-sets-franchise-box-office-record-with-65-million-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/797516\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Scream 7’ Sets Franchise Box Office Record With $65 Million Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGhostface\u2019s still got it. \u201cScream 7<\/a>,\u201d the latest installment in Paramount and Spyglass Media\u2019s long-running slasher series, cemented a franchise record with $64.1 million in its domestic box office debut. <\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s a scary-good start for the 30-year-old property, and one that greatly improves upon the opening of 2023\u2019s \u201cScream VI,\u201d which previously held the domestic opening weekend benchmark with $44.4 million. \u201cScream 7\u201d collected another $33.1 million overseas, bringing its global tally to $97.2 million. Although this entry carries the biggest budget of the series at $45 million, it\u2019ll easily turn a profit in its theatrical run.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is sensational business,\u201d says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. \u201cSmashing records is always good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cScream 7\u201d marks Paramount\u2019s first No. 1 release in 12 months, since last March\u2019s <\/a>action comedy \u201cNovocaine.\u201d The box office win, after a long drought for the studio, comes days after Paramount shocked Hollywood by outbidding Netflix for control of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount\u2019s CEO David Ellison has promised the joint media behemoth would release more than 30 films a year \u2014 which would be the largest output of any studio by a wide margin. However, industry executives and theater owners are skeptical that Paramount will make good on its promise<\/a>. They fear the media merger will result in fewer new films on the big screen, which could be catastrophic considering the movie theater business hasn\u2019t recovered from the pandemic and 2023 labor strikes. Although revenues in 2026 are 9% ahead of last year\u2019s tally, domestic ticket sales are down roughly 20% from pre-COVID times.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cScream 7\u201d had several setbacks in the lead-up to its big screen debut, starting with the firing of 2022\u2019s \u201cScream\u201d reboot and \u201cScream VI\u201d star Melissa Barrera over social media posts that Spyglass viewed as antisemitic. Then her co-star Jenna Ortega as well as director Christopher Landon departed the project. A vocal backlash, including protests at last week\u2019s premiere in Los Angeles<\/a>, didn\u2019t stop fans from showing up to theaters for \u201cScream 7\u201d in droves. The film benefitted from nostalgia \u2014 Neve Campbell, whose resilient heroine Sidney Prescott wasn\u2019t in \u201cScream VI\u201d due to salary disputes, returned for this entry after securing a nearly $7 million deal<\/a> \u2014 as well as the enduring popularity of horror.<\/p>\n

\n\tPremium screens also contributed to the better-than-expected start, with Imax, ScreenX and other pricier formats representing 40% of global grosses. This is the first \u201cScream\u201d installment to be released in Imax. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable that from its humble beginnings some 30 years ago, \u2018Scream\u2019 would resonate as strongly today as when the first film was released,\u201d says Comscore\u2019s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian. \u201cThere is clearly an appetite for scary movies on the big screen. When you layer a terrific trailer, effective marketing campaign and sprinkle in a dash of some of the original stars, \u2018Scream 7\u2019 was perfectly tailored for success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cScream\u201d veteran Kevin Williamson directed the seventh installment, which follows a new Ghostface killer who targets Sidney Prescott\u2019s daughter. (Talk about generational trauma!) Critics were down on the film while moviegoers were mixed, evidenced by the 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and \u201cB-\u201d grade on CinemaScore exit polls. Horror is known to suffer steep second weekend declines, and with these marks, \u201cScream 7\u201d might not be immune to pitfalls of the genre. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor the young horror audience, sitting with friends in a packed dark room and being jolted by big, loud scares remains a strong draw,\u201d Gross says.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince \u201cScream 7\u201d was this weekend\u2019s only major newcomer, holdovers including Sony\u2019s animated \u201cGOAT\u201d and the Warner Bros. adaptation of \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d rounded out North American charts.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGOAT\u201d secured second place with $12 million from 3,707 venues, a decline of just 29% in its third weekend of release. So far, the animated family film has earned $73.9 million domestically and $130.5 million worldwide. It cost $80 million to produce. With minimal week-to-week drops, \u201cGOAT\u201d might have box office legs that are reminiscent of recent original animated films like \u201cElemental,\u201d \u201cThe Wild Robot\u201d and \u201cMigration,\u201d all of which managed to stick around in theaters for weeks after their debuts.<\/p>\n

\n\tThird place went to \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d with $7 million from 3,221 theaters in its third outing, a 50% drop from the prior weekend. The film has generated $72.3 million in North America and a bigger-than-expected $119.7\u00a0million overseas for a global tally of $192\u00a0million. The $80 million-budgeted film extends a stellar box office run for Warner Bros. after last year\u2019s streak of hits such as \u201cA Minecraft Movie,\u201d \u201cSinners,\u201d Final Destination 6\u2033 and \u201cWeapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tElsewhere, Neon\u2019s concert film \u201cEPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert\u201d moved up to the No. 6 spot with $3.5 million from 1,940 theaters. After one weekend in limited release, \u201cEPiC\u201d has generated a solid $7.8 million. Director Baz Luhrmann crafted the film from never-before-seen footage of the King of Rock and Roll that he discovered while making the 2022 Austin Butler-led \u201cElvis\u201d biopic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ghostface\u2019s still got it. \u201cScream 7,\u201d the latest installment in Paramount and Spyglass Media\u2019s long-running slasher series, cemented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,3943,6294,16,15],"class_list":["post-797516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-scream-7","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116155582202553454","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}