Ghostface has died repeatedly on screen. At the same time, Ghostface will never die. That’s because the Scream franchise continues to be a box office juggernaut. Case in point, Scream 7 just became the highest-grossing Scream movie ever over the weekend, even while most of Hollywood was focused on the Oscars, which took place Sunday night. In short? Get ready for Scream 8. It’s now a matter of when – not if – Paramount moves forward with another sequel.
While Pixar’s Hoppers ($28.5 million) led the weekend, trailed by Reminders of Him ($18.2 million) and A24’s super scary new horror movie Undertone ($9.3 million), Scream 7 took fourth place domestically on its third weekend with an estimated $8.3 million. Director Kevin Williamson’s sequel has now earned $106.5 million domestically to go with $70.4 million internationally for a grand, running total of $176.9 million worldwide.
With that, it surpasses director Wes Craven’s original Scream, which had been the biggest entry in the series at $173 million for 30 years. It was trailed closely by Scream 2, which made $172 million and change. This franchise has been remarkably consistent, with Scream 4 ($97.1 million) being arguably the only relative low point financially speaking. Recent entries such as Scream VI ($166.5 million) have been big winners.
The latest installment centers on Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who has built a new life for her family in a small town. Her darkest fears come true as a new Ghostface shows up and they’re deliberately targeting her daughter Tatum (Isabel May). Sidney must face the horrors of her past once more in order to protect her family.
Scream 7 has been crushing it ever since it debuted several weekends ago. It had the biggest opening weekend in the history of the franchise. It also pushed the Scream franchise past the $1 billion mark overall globally. Paramount has every reason to believe that Scream 8 is a good idea at this point. Especially since this movie still has a lot of gas in the tank. It’s easily going to pass $200 million worldwide before all’s said and done. Against a $45 million budget, it will be hugely profitable.
The only problem is that reviews for the latest sequel were mixed. Even so, that hasn’t scared audiences away, it seems. If the studio can manage to keep the budget reasonable, another sequel should be a slam dunk. Expect an announcement sooner rather than later. Stay tuned.
Scream 7 is in theaters now.
