Box Office: ‘Scream’ Scaring Off ‘Spider-Man’ With $30M-Plus Opening

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Paramount’s Scream is scaring up strong business in its box office opening, earning $13.4 million on Friday from 3,664 theaters for a projected weekend debut north of $30 million, based on early projections.

If estimates bear out, the reboot of the classic horror franchise created by the late Wes Craven should gross roughly $31 million for the three-day weekend and as much as $36 million for the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend despite the omicron variant, which is dampening moviegoing overall.

Scream will have no trouble winning the holiday as billion-dollar blockbuster Spider-Man: No Way Home falls to No. 2 in its fifth weekend. Both films are fueled by younger males, who have been the most inclined to return to theaters.

Sony and Marvel’s No Way Home may be relinquishing the top spot, but it is not to be discounted. The film will claim another milestone this weekend when crossing the $700 million mark domestically, a feat achieved by only a handful of films. The superhero pic grossed $5.2 million on Friday for a projected three-day gross of $22 million and $27 million-$28 million for the four days.

From Paramount and Spyglass, Scream opens more than 25 years after Craven’s original. The new film is the fifth title in the series and is a direct sequel to 2011’s Scream 4.

Audiences gave the new Scream a B+ CinemaScore, a good grade for a slasher pic. It also is drawing strong exits.

Matt Bettinello-Olpin and Tyler Gillett share directing duties. This time, the Scream team sees franchise mainstays, Courteney Cox and Neve Campbell, along with Marty Shelton, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Heather Matarazzo and Roger L. Jackson, reprise their roles, while newcomers include Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, Dylan Minnette and Jack Quaid.

Scream follows a new Ghostface-masked killer who pursues a group of teenagers trying to learn about the town’s past.

‘Scream’ Screenwriter Kevin Williamson Confirms Billy and Stu’s Queer-Coded Relationship Was Based on Real Gay Killers

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If you’re still wondering about those homoerotic undertones 25 years after Billy Loomis and Stu Macher terrorized Woodsboro in Wes Craven’s “Scream,” you’ve been on the right track all along.

Ahead of the new “Scream,” out Friday, openly gay screenwriter of the first “Scream,” Kevin Williamson, has confirmed that Billy (Skeet Ulrich) and Stu (Matthew Lillard), who are thought to be queer by many LGBTQ+ fan theorists, were based on infamous mass murderers Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. and Richard Albert Loeb, both of whom reportedly admitted they were gay and in a relationship.

In May 1924, Leopold and Loeb, who’ve been called the “LGBTQ+ prototype for Bonnie and Clyde,” killed 14-year-old Bobby Franks as an act of intellectual superiority. It’s been called the “perfect crime,” one that has influenced Hitchcock’s “Rope” as well as the 2002 crime thriller “Murder by Numbers.” Both are noted for their homoerotism.

Now, nearly three decades after “Scream” came out, theorists can officially categorize “Scream” in that same queer-coded realm.

“It’s very sort of homoerotic, in the sense that there were these two guys that killed this other person just to see if they could get away with it,” Williamson says, drawing parallels between the Leopold and Loeb case and Billy and Stu. “And one of the reasons that one could get the other one is because I think the other one was secretly in love with him. And it was sort of a fascinating case study on double murderers. If you Google Leopold and Loeb, you will see. And you’ll read about it and you’ll get, OK, that’s Billy and Stu.”

This wasn’t lost on “Scream” queen Neve Campbell, who has starred as the film’s Ghostface-fighting heroine mainstay Sidney Prescott. When asked about Billy and Stu in a revealing new interview with Pride Source, Campbell acknowledged a “burgeoning love relationship,” before elaborating on exactly what that means.

After calling them “pretty confused guys,” she said, “Maybe some of their anger comes from not being allowed to be who they want to be, if you wanna go there.” Was Stu more in love with Billy than the other way around? “Yeah, yeah. Yes,” Campbell answered definitively.

“One was the follower and one was the leader,” Williamson said. “And that alone sort of sets up the dynamic of a hidden relationship.”

“Is Stu secretly in love with Billy? Maybe. Did Billy manipulate that? Possibly,” added Williamson, who created “Dawson’s Creek” and wrote the screenplays for “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “The Faculty.” “It’s all left up for you to wonder, because clearly Billy’s the one who was leading. Billy was the one who had the mother. Billy was the one who was sort of orchestrating it. And Stu was the person who helped carry it out. So it sort of put Stu in that position of, what was his feelings toward his best friend? That we do not know. It’s just left to keep you wondering.”

Not everyone wondered. Some just knew. The 2000 comedy “Scary Movie,” which parodied scenes from “Scream,” picked up on the queer vibes between Billy and Stu. In one scene, Ray (Shawn Wayans), based on Stu, and Bobby (Jon Abrahams), based on Billy, joke about being gay, divulging to a Sidney-like character called Cindy (Anna Faris) that, “That’s right, Cindy, I’m gay. And in case you haven’t noticed, so is Ray.”

Williamson admits that when he wrote the original “Scream,” which was released in 1996, he was “very hesitant to present the gay side of me in my work,” resulting in the queerness of characters Billy and Stu being “a little coded and maybe accidental.”

Now, he said, “maybe I’d be braver. Maybe I wouldn’t be that shy little gay writer who felt like he couldn’t get away with it.”

Williamson grew up in the South in both Texas and North Carolina, places where he understood “that fight for survival that you feel, like you’re trying to hide yourself. And then just trying to survive until you can get out of that small town and be yourself and express yourself.”

Recently, in an interview with The Independent, Williamson confessed that the “Scream” movies are “coded in gay survival,” with Sidney being, essentially, a manifestation of his struggles as a gay person.

“It’s always the survival tales that connects us,” he told Pride Source this week. “And so I think that’s one of the reasons final girls are so important to us as a gay audience.” Before he wrote Sidney, he related to Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode in “Halloween” because, being gay, “he understands the “plight of the final girl.”

“I know what it’s like,” he added. “I think gay kids everywhere understand that survival element that we have to sort of create in ourselves. And when we’re watching that final girl have to prove herself and rise to the challenge and save her life, I think that’s something gay kids anywhere can relate to.”

Touched by how many LGBTQ+ people have felt inspired by Sidney, Campbell said her heroic character “gives people that confidence that they can overcome” and that she understands why “it makes sense certainly for the queer community and gay men. But I think also just for anyone who has struggled with bullying or challenges, and in their youth especially.”

And then, of course, there’s pushy, stubbornly pertinacious TV journalist Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) who, Williamson said, “would fit right in with the ‘Will & Grace’ crowd.”

“She represents one side of my voice,” he said, “which is part of who I am.”

In the new installment of “Scream,” titled the same as the original that was released to massive and ever-growing fandom 26 years ago, Williamson is reveling in the fact that there’s an openly queer woman of color, Mindy (played by Jasmine Savoy-Brown, a queer actor of color) among the new teen cast. Fighting off Ghostface alongside the new teens is the legacy cast, which includes Campbell, Cox and, returning as deputy sheriff Dewey Riley, David Arquette.

Of course Mindy is a result of a shift in LGBTQ+ representation — now, to queer-code characters would be an embarrassing step backwards — but Williamson also attributes the character to a shift in his own growth as a gay man. That growth, he said, led him to write the character of Jack McPhee, an openly gay teen who appeared as a “Dawson’s Creek” series regular starting in 1998.

“I felt empowered,” he said. “I felt like, OK, now I can start expressing myself and really write that part of me that I really want to write.”

With Mindy in “Scream,” he feels great affection for the character who he says “just exists.”

“We’re in a place now where she’s just part of the group,” he added. “And it’s just part of life. I just think that was beautiful.” Campbell, too, agreed it was “a beautiful thing.”

When Williamson received the director’s cut of the new “Scream,” which he executive produced but didn’t write, he watched it with his partner. His affection for Sidney runs so deep that, as he watched her appear for the first time onscreen, jogging down the boardwalk with her baby carriage, turning to the camera to answer a call from Dewey, he cried.

“I did,” he said. “I teared up.”

Watch Neve Campbell talk about Billy and Stu’s sexuality in the video below.

Here’s What The Stars Of The “Scream” Movies Have Worn On The Red Carpet Over The Years

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Seeing the cast all dolled up on the red carpet had us feeling nostalgic, so we went back to see what Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, and the other stars of the first four movies wore to the premieres. (Warning: Some of these looks are a bit chaotic — looking at you, Skeet Ulrich!)

‘It was nice to play some real emotion’: Courteney Cox, Neve Campbell dish on ‘Scream’ legacy

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Neve Campbell will forever be haunted by Ghostface, and she’s totally cool with that.

The actress gets a load of the slasher antagonist on the regular even when she’s not actually going toe-to-toe with the masked villain of the “Scream” movies, from the 1996 meta-horror original to the fifth installment hitting theaters Friday.

“I don’t know that it’ll ever not be trippy, opening my door to Ghostface every year (on Halloween) or having my kids see Ghostface and knowing I’m a part of it,” Campbell says.

Her character Sidney Prescott was a teenager when she survived the original Woodsboro Murders as the primary target of Ghostface – aka her boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and his psycho pal Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) – in the first “Scream,” which also launched “Scream” regulars Dewey Riley (David Arquette) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) into the pop-culture pantheon.

Review:Despite new faces, ‘Scream’ misses chance for a stab at something fresh

Set 25 years later, the latest “Scream” – and the first not directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015 – finds another Ghostface on the loose hunting a bunch of high school kids in a story that mines its own mythology in new ways.

“The Woodsboro roots run very deep in this,” says executive producer Chad Villella, part of the Radio Silence filmmaking collective with directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (“Ready or Not”).

“So much of ‘Scream’ is about legacy and generations, the handoff between generations and sins of the past,” Gillett adds. “There was something in that I think made the whole thing just congeal real nicely.”

The cast and the filmmakers break down what’s new in the latest “Scream”:

A fresh-faced ‘Scream’ queen comes home

The franchise’s newest lead character, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), left Woodsboro years ago but needs to return when her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega) is attacked by Ghostface. “There was too much trauma there, so she had to get out, she had to get away. And with that sacrifice, getting away from the person that she loved the most,” Barrera says of her role. “Coming back all these years later, you see her come face-to-face with her fears and conquer them, which is so characteristic of the franchise. It’s always led by like powerful women who go from victim to warriors and fighters and protectors, and Sam is following in the footsteps of Sidney and Gale.”

2022 movie preview:The 10 most must-see films, from ‘The Batman’ to ‘Scream’

Sidney Prescott is one tough mother

The latest film finds Sidney content as a happy wife and mom, and no longer a reluctant heroine who in the past has hidden away from her past. When she gets the call that old friends need her help, she doesn’t hesitate to jump into action. “The possibility of a threat to your child just takes her strength to another level,” Campbell says. “It’s nice to go in with, oh, well, Sidney would have no doubt whatsoever now. Not that she ever has much doubt, but she needs to take care of this because of the possibility of Ghostface coming for her family.”

Gale Weathers reaches a career highlight

Cox’s ruthless newswoman is a New York City morning show anchor when the film begins. “It’s always been her dream to be known across at least America and that was a big deal for her, to move away and do that,” Cox says. She and Dewey have split up – mirroring Cox and Arquette’s real-life divorce after 2011’s “Scream 4” – but Ghostface’s reappearance gives Gale a chance to mend fences. “There is an evolution of Gale,” Cox says. “I like playing the campy stuff and she still has some quips, but it’s 10 years later and we have all gotten older. And it was nice to play some real emotion in this film.”

Lawman Dewey Riley has seen better days

Unlike Sidney and Gale, the former Woodsboro sheriff has remained in town, although past experiences weigh heavily on him and he constantly feels the pain of previous encounters (including several stab wounds). Dewey gets his cop swagger back investigating the new Ghostface with Sam and her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid). “It was interesting that his life hadn’t turned out the way he’d wanted or expected. He found himself in a darker place and these new guys come around and lift him up,” Arquette says. “As you get older, you do get a little road-weary. You understand life a little more.”

New filmmakers bring the gore

“Scream” movies have never been for the faint of heart, but Campbell is quick to point out how the filmmakers went extra hard on the blood spatter, shattered bones and nasty neck wounds. “Wes would just be giggling. He would love it. It seems like they can’t help themselves,” Campbell says. Living up to Craven’s violence in the original “Scream” was important for Gillett: “If we’re doing our jobs right, you should be hoping that we’re getting through it as quickly as possible, which is why we make you sit in it longer.” Adds Bettinelli-Olpin, “The agony of being in that moment with the characters is something we take really seriously.”

That old Ghostface is as freaky as ever

The ghoulish figure continues to be one of the franchise’s most iconic aspects. “There’s something about not knowing who the killer’s going to be each time,” Cox says. “Anybody could be behind that mask.” Getting to share screen time with Ghostface was the first time Barrera felt “genuinely scared” when acting, she says. “There’s something so intimidating about the robe and the mask once it’s on a person. When you see it like hanging on a hanger, the robe is glittery and you’re like, ‘Oh, that seems harmless.’ And then when our stunt people would put it on and grab a knife, it would be terrifying.”

Photos from 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.