‘Scream’ Hitting Loud Pitch With $36M 4-Day, ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Surging Past ‘Black Panther’

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SATURDAY AM UPDATE: We can complain about omicron. But I wouldn’t necessarily complain that the variant is spoiling the top films at the box office, as Paramount/Spyglass Media’s Scream had a robust first day of $13.3M (including $3.5M Thursday previews) on its way to a $31.5M 3-day and $36M 4-day at 3,664 theaters.

That 4-day beats Mama, the previous high opening for a horror movie over MLK, and overall, Scream‘s 3-day isn’t far from its previous sequel opening highs, Scream 2, which did $32.9M back in 1997, and Scream 3, which made $34.7M back in 2000. A great start to 2022 for Paramount on the big screen. EntTelligence box office analytics firm reports that 1M people have watched Scream so far, including 250K from Thursday night previews.

Chalk up the success here to the alchemy of paying homage to what’s old with the new: The fresh blood boarding Scream, i.e. scribes James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick and filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, didn’t operate in a vacuum when approaching a reboot/sequel of Scream. They brought in the consigliere services of the IP’s architect Kevin Williamson, who serves as EP here. Paramount believed that the film would play best to a crowd, and kept it relegated to the big screen, versus a day-and-date hybrid approach with its streamer Paramount+.

Social Media corp RelishMix beams about the advance weekend buzz for Scream, “With a date that was set in stone, unchanged and locked from one year ago, Scream opens solo with positive leaning convo to a potential Covid-proof audience. Fans are shouting on social for Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Ghost Face and David Arquette’s character Dewey as fans are ready for a wild and entertaining distraction into the New Year of cinematic madness. Negative and Covid related chatter runs thin.”

The pic’s campaign across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram counted nine video drops in a week, with YouTube materials clocking close to 60M views. From the last installment 11 years ago, the social media universe for Scream is now at 126.4M which is 27% above the horror genre norm. By comparison, Halloween Kills had a SMU of 145.1M (opened at $49.4M) and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It counted a SMU at 131.1M (opened at $24.1M). “In other words, social stats are in the ballpark of recent horror films,” reports RelishMix.

Scream‘s actors are well activated on social media with Cox at 15.6M followers, Dylan Minnette at 7.9M, Jenna Ortega at 6.8M, Melissa Barrera with over 1M, David Arquette at 468K, and Neve Campbell at 418K. “All are indexing exceptionally well, as fans can see how much fun the cast is having in promotion as well as making the film,” assesses RelishMix.

Barrera gets a call from Cox, this video earning over 2.5M views on the Friends alum’s Instagram:

The hashtag #12Screamsfortheholidays became a push prior to the pic’s launch.

Scream received a B+ CinemaScore, which ties with its highest grade from 1997’s Scream 2. Scream 3 and 4 respectively earned a B and B-, while the first wasn’t monitored by PostTrak as it was a platform release. Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak audiences giving the movie a 79% positive and a 61% recommend. The pic played best in the East, West, and South Central, with 20 locations, we hear, grossing a $25K+ first day, which is very good. Audience leaned 56% male, with close to 80% under 34 years old, indicating that the movie is appealing toward a younger generation. The largest demo was 25-34 year olds at 36%. Diversity draw was 38% Caucasian, 36% Latino and Hispanic, 14% Black, & 12% Asian/other. Scream is still being released in Canada theatrically, even though cinemas are shuttered in the Quebec and Ontario provinces.

Typically, horror movies are front-loaded, and hopefully there’s enough momentum here for Scream to hit its current opening projections or go higher.

Sony

Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home will click to $705M by the end of the holiday weekend, which would make it the fourth-highest movie of all-time at the domestic box office, besting Black Panther‘s $700M. Sony reports a $5.1M Friday for the Jon Watts-directed title at 3,925 sites for a $21.4M 3-day, $26.75M 4-day.

Gkids

GKIDs’ Belle posted $727K on Friday at 1,326 theaters. The outlook for the Mamoru Hosoda directed and Studio Chizu animated movie is $1.55M over 3-days and $1.9M over 4-days. Belle played best in the West and Mountain regions and notched an 86% audience score on PostTrak with a 63% recommend. Men were dominant at 55%, with 83% under 34-years-old and the biggest demo being 25-34 at 39%. Critics loved Belle at 95% Certified Fresh with the diversity draw being 39% Caucasian, 30% Asian/other, 19% Latino and Hispanic and 12% Black.

Overall, we continue to see a situation of “Haves” and “Have-Nots” at the domestic box office, with adult-skewing titles still leaner than event films. Total ticket receipts over four days are only expected to be $92.3M over 4-days, which is 55% off from MLK weekend 2020’s $205.3M before the exhibition shutdown. That’s also when Bad Boys for Life delivered the 4-day holiday’s second-best opening with a $73M start.

Weekend estimates:

Title/theaters/Fri-Sat-Sun/3-day (% chg)/Total/Weekend no.

1.) Scream (Par) 3,664 theaters Fri $13.3M/3-day $31.5M, 4-day $36M/Wk 1

2.) Spider-Man: No Way Home(Sony) 3,925 (-87) theaters, Fri $5.1M (-39%) /3-day $21.4M (-34%)/4-day $26.75M/Total: $705M/Wk 4

3.) Sing 2 (Uni/Ill) 3,581 (-132) theaters, Fri $1.79M (-33%)/3-day $8.56M (-26%)/4-day $11.4M/Total: $122.5M/Wk 4

4.) The King’s Man (20th/Dis) 2,510 (-530) theaters Fri $639K (-29%)/3-day $2.4M (-27%)/4-day $2.9M /Total $29.3M/Wk 4

5.) The 355 (Uni/FilmNation) 3,145 theaters, Fri $660K (-62%)/3-day $2.39M (-48%)/4-day $2.87M /Total $8.9M/Wk 2

6.) American Underdog (LG) 2,394 (-335) theaters, Fri $505K (-30%)/3-day: $1.84M (-21%)/4 day $2.26M/Total: $21.7M/Wk 4

7.) Belle (GKIDS) 1,326 theaters Fri $727K/3-day $1.55M/4-day $1.9M/Wk 1

8.) West Side Story (20th/Dis) 1,460 (-830) theaters, Fri $238K (-38%)/3-day $925K (-34%)/4-day $1.15M/Total $33.9M/Wk 6

9.) Licorice Pizza (UAR) 772 theaters, Fri $252K (-11%)/3-day $915K (-7%)/4-day $1.1M/Total $9.8M/Wk 8

10.) Matrix Resurrections (WB) 1,725 (-1,150) theaters, Fri $220K (-55%) /3-day $881K (-52%)/4 day $1.08M/Total: $36.08M/Wk 4

FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Paramount-Spyglass Media’s Scream made $3.5M from Thursday night previews that began at 7 p.m. at roughly 3,000 theaters.

That’s a healthy take for a horror movie during the pandemic, pacing behind Halloween Kills and A Quiet Place PArt II‘s Thursday nights, which were $4.8M each, and not too far behind pre-pandemic MLK weekend thriller Glass, which did $3.7M in 2019. Glass saw a three-day of $40M, but don’t go comping Scream to that M. Night Shyamalan title yet, given the erratic moviegoer attendance during the pandemic.

Jenna Ortega in “Scream.” Paramount

The reboot-sequel directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett arguably is the only marquee draw until Feb. 4, along with whatever remaining dollars Spider-Man: No Way Home rakes in; that’s when Lionsgate has Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall and Paramount has Jackass Forever. The hope is that Scream, with a Rotten Tomatoes fresh critics score of 76% and audience score of 90%, can screech past anything in the $20M over four-days. That would be a nice start over the holiday in a pandemic marketplace; the highest opening over MLK weekend for a horror movie being Universal’s Mama, which did $32.1M in 2013. The biggest opening for a horror movie during the pandemic belongs to Universal/Blumhouse/Miramax’s Halloween Kills, which did $49.4M back in October. That was with a day-and-date Peacock in-home availability built in, but also when more blockbusters were back-to-back in cinemas. Halloween Kills fell short of $100M with $92M stateside.

Kevin Williamson On ‘Scream’s Fresh Blood, Wes Craven & Possible ‘Dawson’s Creek’ Reboot : ‘Hero Nation’ Podcast

Paramount and Spyglass Media co-financed Scream at $24M before P&A.

In addition last night, Paramount held a Scream Opening Night Fan Event at select theaters nationwide, which featured a live Q&A with actor David Arquette, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett and Scream executive producer and creator Kevin Williamson, as well as a pre-taped talent intro and extended bonus content featuring the new cast with behind-the-scenes footage. That event took place at 5 p.m. PT, 7 p.m. CT and 8 p.m. ET at participating theaters.

Sony

Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home took in $2.1M on Thursday at 4,012 theaters, -4% from Wednesday taking its cume through the end of week 4 to $677.95M. The Jon Watts-directed movie will become the fifth-highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office today, passing 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, which counts $678.8M. Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther ranks as the fourth-biggest movie stateside with $700.4M.

In second place was Illumination/Universal’s Sing 2 with an estimated $555K on Thursday, +3%, for a running total through the end of Week 3 of $111M.

The other wide release this weekend is Gkids’ Belle at 1,300 locations. The movie opened Wednesday in 130 theaters, has expanded to 995 sites and counts a two day total of $335K. Pic will play in 40 Imax auditoriums this weekend as well as venues such as The Landmark in LA, BAM in NYC and The Roxie in San Francisco.

Scream 5 Rian Johnson Reference Explained by Co-Writer

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This story contains SPOILERS about the new “Scream” film.

Like any great “Scream” movie, the fifth film in the franchise is movie-literate and wildly self-aware. The new film has fun with toxic fandom and the idea of a “requel,” or a movie that remakes the original film while pairing new characters with legacy, fan favorites — just like this film does and proudly wears on its sleeve.

But it also makes a sly reference to a real-life director whose own movie has become the poster child for attacks from toxic fans and the trend of requels: Rian Johnson, or as “Scream” refers to him, “The ‘Knives Out’ Guy.”

James Vanderbilt, one of the film’s co-writers along with Guy Busick and a producer on the film for his Project X Entertainment banner, explained to TheWrap why name-dropping Johnson in one of the film’s key scenes was “kind of too perfect.”

Fans of the “Scream” sequels know that there are a series of fake movies within the movies called the “Stab” franchise. The “Stab” films tell the true stories of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), the Ghostface killers and the residents of Woodsboro.

The premise and running gag of the new “Scream” is that Hollywood has decided to make its latest “Stab” movie a “requel” and revert everything back to the original by bringing back the original characters. And to drive home the point even more, the new “Stab” movie is called quite simply, “Stab,” not unlike how “Scream” (2022) rips off the title of “Scream” (1996) or “Halloween” (2018) has the same name as “Halloween” (1978).

There’s only one big difference with this new “Stab” movie: people HATE it.

“We loved the idea that someone had made one that was not well received. Much like certain directors have made big IP movies that fandoms have rejected in an enormous way,” Vanderbilt explained. “There is a very tiny percentage of people who feel such an ownership over an IP and have such anger toward people that if they don’t do things exactly the way they want to, spew this [stuff], and that feels like something that didn’t exist 10 years ago.”

Rian Johnson of course directed “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi,” which is a follow-up to one of the most famous requels, “The Force Awakens,” and was also the target of massive amounts of online vitriol from toxic fans. But Johnson also directed the eighth Star Wars film, and guess what “Stab” movie was up next in the franchise lineage? “Stab 8.”

“I think watching how people attacked him as a person was, oh we’re in new territory here,” Vanderbilt said. “In ‘Scream’ 1 they talk about Wes Carpenter movies, in ‘Scream 2’ they talk about Robert Rodriguez directed Stab. There is a great tradition of commenting on other filmmakers who are peers of the time, and that felt like a very natural thing. Rian directed this big IP that was divisive. We felt like if someone directed the ‘Stab’ movie and it were divisive, it would be fun if it were Rian.”

“Scream” breaks down the idea of a “requel” in a terrific scene where Jasmin Savoy-Brown, the film’s horror “expert,” explains the trend of soft remakes of a franchise as seen in everything from “Ghostbusters” to “Halloween” to “Star Wars” and beyond. The characters all seem to realize that the drama they’re playing out is its own requel story, and Vanderbilt had the goal of making a movie that he as a fan would most want to see and that could comment on where the movies and the horror genre specifically has gone in the last 10 years since “Scream 4.”

“The thing about the original ‘Scream’ was that it got to have its cake and eat it too. It deconstructed the slasher while also being a great slasher [film],” Vanderbilt said. “We wanted to deconstruct the requel while hopefully making a really great requel.”

Scream’s Neve Campbell Reveals She Was Once Attacked By A Bear On A Movie Set

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Neve Campbell knows a thing or two about scary movies. As a bonafide Scream Queen (or, queen of Scream if you’d prefer), she has endured some brutal moments on screen over the years. But it turns out one of her scariest on-set moments had nothing to do with Ghostface, because she was once attacked by a bear while filming a movie.

Most people probably associate Neve Campbell with the Scream franchise – she has starred in all five films, after all. But before she played Sidney Prescott in Wes Craven’s original movie, she worked hard to build a Hollywood career, racking up credits in film (like the spooky teen movie The Craft ) and television (like her breakthrough role in the family drama Part of Five ). One of her pre-Scream performances was noteworthy for a much less positive reason. During a visit to The Kelly Clarkson Show , Campbell shared a story about a terrifying experience she had on a Canadian film set. It started when she was asked to do something a little bit unconventional to prepare for a scene:

I was playing this role where she’s ‘one with the animals’ and there was a scene where I was getting chased by a bear. They brought this bear on set and they first gave me this big bottle of Coke to feed it. [After feeding it], they said dip your hand in honey and just run. And when you get to the tree over there, turn your hand out and feed the bear.

Okay, there were probably safer ways to get the bear on board with his big cinematic moment, but the actress told Kelly Clarkson she set aside her reservations. She was just seventeen years old and assumed the crew knew what they were doing. Also, the star said that she was a “people pleaser” and eager to show she was capable of the scary stunt, so she followed the instructions:

I dipped my hand in honey, and I run to this rock, and I turn around and I put my hand out – and the bear is not slowing down and he’s not coming for my hand. He grabs me by the leg and he pulls me through the forest. My mother was visiting set and she’s screaming. The whole crew is frozen because nobody can believe what’s happening. All I can think to say is, ‘He’s biting me,’ like it’s not obvious.

Luckily, one of the members of the crew was able to distract the bear by throwing rocks at it, and Neve Campbell was able to escape. She didn’t disclose which movie she was filming at the time, but it goes without saying that it probably wasn’t her favorite filmmaking experience.

These days, she’s still screaming on movie sets from time to time, albeit in a much more controlled environment. The latest Scream just debuted in theaters (with a solid opening night) and, while there are plenty of terrifying moments that have delighted critics, the film doesn’t feature a single bear.

25 Secrets About Scream Revealed

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1. Screenwriter Kevin Williamson came up with the idea for the movie while watching a 1994 episode of ABC News’ Turning Point about the serial killer dubbed the Gainesville Ripper. House-sitting at the time, Williamson was spooked when he saw a window was open that he was convinced he had closed.

2. The script caused a bidding war in Hollywood, with Dimension ultimately landing the movie. But finding a director proved to be an unexpected challenge before horror legend Wes Craven signed on after initially passing on the project.

“Every name you could imagine came up [to direct],” Williamson told The Ringer. “Wes’s name came up really early. Robert Rodriguez’s name came up. Quentin Tarantino’s name came up.”

Ultimately, it was Craven’s then-assistant Julie Plec, who would go on to co-create The Vampire Diaries among other TV hits, who helped convince him to return to the genre after the filmmaker’s New Nightmare failed to perform at the box office.

“At the time I was working at Wes’s house, so I would have lunch with him every day. And so I said, ‘Remember that great script? They’re having a hard time finding a director and they really want you to do it,’” Plec recalled to The Ringer. “I was just kind of making quote-unquote innocent small talk. And he said, ‘Ah, well they should just make me an offer I can’t refuse then.’ And I think he was joking, but I went back to [director of development] Lisa [Harrison] and I said, ‘He said make him an offer he can’t refuse.’ And so Dimension did. And he took it.”

3. The original title was Scary Movie, with the studio deciding to change it to Scream after production had wrapped, much to the creative team’s initial dismay.

‘[Scary Movie] was on all our wrap gifts and all our fanny packs," Plec told The Ringer. “They wanted it to be Scream and we were like, ‘That’s terrible.’ We were all outraged. Turned out to be a good choice.

Review: ‘Scream’ is back, and yes, it’s still in on the joke

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By Jake Coyle | Associated Press

Ring. Ring.

Twenty-six years after the original, “Scream” calls again. We’re now up to the fifth film in the franchise, but the first since 2011’s “Scream 4.” Enough time has passed that this one, titled simply “Scream,” bears no number, no caller ID. That’s presumably because this “Scream,” which features the original cast and introduces a new generation of callers and stabbers, is sequel and reboot in one. Or, as one character explicitly defines in “Scream,” a “requel.”

Part of the charm of the original “Scream,” a glossy, couldn’t-be-more-’90s slasher, was its knowingness. Wes Craven’s film, written by Kevin Williamson, made a plaything of genre conventions by having the characters openly discuss horror tropes while also being bludgeoned by them. The bright idea of the new “Scream” is to double down on the meta. Here, the long-running “Stab” movies — the fictional stand-in for the “Scream” franchise — is mocked as cheeseball shlock. In the movie’s opening phone call, one that mirrors the call Drew Barrymore received in the original, Tara (Jenna Ortega) — after initially ignoring a strange call on “the landline” — tells the strange voice on the other end (again Roger Jackson, franchise MVP) that she prefers “elevated horror” like “The Babadook,” “Hereditary” and “It Follows.”

It’s easy to chuckle (and agree) with such winking pronouncements. There’s a lot of such self-referential jokes in the new “Scream.” But that’s about all there is.

What really is the legacy of “Scream”? Most, I suspect, hardly recall the three sequels. The original got a big boost from the personalities of its performers, among them Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Matthew Lillard. (All but Lillard return here.) But, like Tara suggests, the “Scream” movies seem like quickly aged relics — particularly when you consider that they were the products of Harvey and Bob Weinstein. If anything, “Scream” persists mostly because Ghostface, its killer’s trademark Edvard Munch-like mask, remains a Halloween staple.

Filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (who helmed 2019’s “Ready or Not”), working from the script by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, don’t offer up much reason for a retread beside some kitschy killer nostalgia, more fun with phones and enough self-mocking irony to almost distract from how thin the movie is.

Working in their favor is a solid young cast, including Ortega, Melissa Barrera (“In the Heights”) and Jack Quaid (son of Dennis). Tara’s near-fatal encounter in the film’s first scene draws her estranged sister, Sam (Barrera), to her bedside. Sam arrives with her boyfriend, Richie (Quaid), who professes unfamiliarity with the “Stab” films but proves a quick study at their rules of survival. We are back in Woodsboro, California, the setting for all the “Scream” films and site of the murders said to inspire the “Stab” movies. When Ghostface begins slashing again, the kids appeal to an earlier Woodsboro generation (Arquette, Cox, Campbell) for help.

It’s a basic format that’s been trotted out for plenty of reboots before. But aside from its frequent stabs at self-referential comedy, “Scream” proceeds with a dull repetitiveness. (It’s the first “Scream” film not directed by Craven, who died in 2015 and to whom the movie is dedicated.) None of the characters get filled in much, and instead are offered up like mere fodder for Ghostface’s knife. In the end, “Scream” becomes a commentary on remakes, reboots and “requels” in a way it doesn’t quite intend. It captures the horror being trapped inside a never-ending loop.

“Scream”

1 1/2 stars out of 4

Rating: PG-13 (for strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references)

Running time: 114 minutes