Ghostface and Sidney Prescott just made a bit of horror history. Thanks to the early returns at the box office from Scream 7, the slasher franchise has officially joined the $1 billion club. That’s right! This is the highest-grossing slasher series ever, bigger than Halloween or Friday the 13th. It’s also one of only a small handful of horror franchises from any sub-genre to cross that coveted milestone.
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The Scream movies have collectively made $1.01 billion worldwide. Director Wes Craven’s original Scream is the current leading the clubhouse with $173 million worldwide, unadjusted for inflation. Scream 2 isn’t far behind with $172 million and change. The lowest-grossing entry remains 2011’s Scream 4, which made just $96 million. Still, this series has been remarkably consistent, with the lows not all that low and the highs very high. The budgets have also generally been reasonable, which always helps.
Speaking of highs, Scream 7 opened to nearly $100 million globally, setting a new record for the series. This, despite the fact that critics were less than kind to it. What's true is that udiences from multiple generations now love Ghostface and Sidney Prescott, as well as the whodunnit factor that helps set this series apart from many other long-running slashers. There’s always someone different under that mask. That’s part of the appeal and why it endures.
It also helps that Scream (2022) and Scream VI very much leaned into making these movies friendly to the younger generation. It wasn't purely nostalgia. Thanks to the newer, younger cast members, Gen Z had something to latch onto as well, making the most recent trilogy resoundingly successful.
The other horror franchises that have made at least $1 billion globally include The Conjuring Universe ($2.89 billion), Alien ($1.9 billion), Resident Evil ($1.2 billion), It ($1.17 billion) and Saw ($1.14 billion). Rather notably, It managed to do that with just two movies, with 2017’s It taking in $700 million as the highest-grossing single horror movie ever. All the same, it’s a very small list that Scream is now a part of. Most of these franchises also have new movies in the works, meaning these numbers will grow as time goes on.
By the end of Scream 7’s run, the total will probably be closer to $1.1 billion as the movie has a lot of gas left in the tank. Paramount is also sure to begin development of Scream 8 sooner rather than later, which means this total will only continue to grow in the coming years.
Scream 7 is in theaters now.
