Box Office: ‘Scream’ Set to Dethrone ‘Spider-Man’ With $36 Million Holiday Weekend Debut

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Do you like scary movies? North American audiences still do, even as most other theatrical releases continue to struggle amid a pandemic. “Scream” is the latest horror film to make a sizable impression at the domestic box office, with an opening weekend that should finally dethrone “Spider-Man: No Way Home” after the Marvel entry’s four-week reign in the top slot.

Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media’s “Scream,” the fifth installment in the horror franchise and the first in over a decade, grossed $13.35 million on Friday from 3,664 locations. The studio projects that the horror film should rake in a solid $36 million over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, more than enough to land at No. 1 for the weekend. What’s more, the thrifty “requel” only cost $25 million to produce, a number that the release should easily rocket past before the weekend is out. Not too shabby for a January release unleashed on the moviegoing public amid a colossal spike of COVID-19 and its more transmissible omicron variant. “Scream” is evidence that audiences will still roll out to theaters during the pandemic, especially for franchise appointment cinema targeting a demographic of younger viewers.

Should Paramount’s projections pan out, the $36 million haul for “Scream” would compare favorably to other recent hit horror sequels at the domestic box office, including the $49.4 million debut for Universal’s “Halloween Kills” and the $47.5 million opening for Paramount’s “A Quiet Place Part II.” The opening is also a marked improvement for the “Scream” franchise, as 2011’s “Scream 4” opened to a softer $19.3 million, ultimately landing at a $38.2 million final gross.

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett direct “Scream,” taking over the series from its founder Wes Craven, who helmed the four first entries before dying in 2015. The film stars series regulars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette as they are once again haunted by a serial killer in a Ghostface mask. The killing spree extends to a group of high school students in the town of Woodsboro, Calif. Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid and Dylan Minnette also star in the slasher.

The reboot has earned fairly positive reviews, with Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman writing: “Is it fun? Mostly, yes. Surprising? It keeps faking you out about who the killer is, and playing that guessing game is part of the film’s suspense, but it’s a suspense based on the fact that the film can stay one step ahead of us in a totally arbitrary way.” The film holds a 75% critical aggregate on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences assigned a “B+” CinemaScore rating, indicating overall approval from general ticketgoers.

Meanwhile, Columbia Pictures’ “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is still going strong, weeks after its supermassive debut. The MCU entry took in $5.15 million on Friday, heading for the box office’s runner-up slot with a $26.75 million holiday weekend total. That puts the Tom Holland vehicle on track to surpass a $700 million domestic cume before Monday — about as successful as a North American theatrical release can be, for all intents and purposes. After this weekend, “No Way Home” will only stand behind “Avatar” ($760 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($858 million) and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($936 million) in the record books of domestic box office totals.

Universal’s “Sing 2” will take third with a favorable 26% drop for the weekend. The animated sequel is projected to earn another $11.42 million by Tuesday, expanding its domestic total to $122.5 million. That’s an enviable result for an animated theatrical release during the pandemic, as family-friendly films have been struggling at the box office over the past year. Case in point: the first “Sing” landed at a domestic total of $270.3 million in 2016.

Fourth place should go to Disney and 20th Century Studios’ long-delayed prequel “The King’s Man.” The action film has enjoyed some healthy holds since debuting over the holidays, with this weekend projecting a 26% drop. However, the prequel got off on the wrong foot by cratering in its opening and should only scrape its way past $30 million over the next week.

Capping off the top five is Universal’s sophomore weekend of “The 355.” The film is facing a 48% drop-off from its opening with a projected $2.87 million four-day gross. With a reported $40 million production budget, the espionage ensemble piece has no hope of recouping that total from North American theaters.

Meanwhile, GKIDS’ release of the anime film “Belle” is making a modest impression in its debut. The latest from director Mamoru Hosoda is projected to earn $1.91 million over the holiday weekend from 1,350 locations — good for seventh place at the domestic box office.

Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson encouraged directors of new sequel to take ‘big swings’

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The directors and executive producer of the horror franchise’s fifth installment tell EW about risk-taking and paying homage to Wes Craven.

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It is no real spoiler to say that the new Scream film (out in cinemas Jan. 14) takes big swings when it comes to some of the beloved franchise’s characters. Executive producer Chad Villella explains that the jaw-dropping turns were a crucial part of the original script, by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.

“Those big swings were definitely present in the script,” says Villella. “As you’re getting closer and closer to production, and the rubber’s about to meet the road, everyone always voices their doubts and is like, ‘Oh, are we sure this the right choice?’ But for us, those swings, they’re so essential and so integral to what happens in the story. They’re really consequential. All of the really big turning points for us, they’re valuable to what the movie is and it just wouldn’t be the same experience if you removed them. It’s sort of a house of cards and really that is what was so clear to us about the script as we were reading it. We loved the risks that it took and wanted to make sure that we protected those at all costs.”

Co-director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin reveals that another of the new film’s executive producers, original Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson, encouraged such risk-taking.

“There’s a swing in the movie that Kevin Williamson flagged in pre-production,” says Bettinelli-Olpin, a member of the Radio Silence collective along with his fellow Scream director Tyler Gillett and Villella. “[He said], ‘This is the only thing that doesn’t quite feel like it’s in a Scream movie, which is why I think it’s the absolute thing you need to make sure stays in the script.’”

Below, Bettinelli-Olpin, Gillett, and Villella talk about paying homage to Wes Craven (who directed the first four films in the series) and the future of the Scream franchise.

Scream 2022 Scream 2022 | Credit: BROWNIE HARRIS/ Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The new Scream has been getting great reactions. That must feel pretty good.

TYLER GILLETT: Yeah, I think it’s more than we ever expected. You always make something hoping that it connects with people and you’re white-knuckling it right up to the moment that people’s opinions are out in the world. We are beyond thrilled [about the reactions] and so excited for audiences now to get to have the experience.

Your 2019 movie Ready or Not was a success, but what was the process of auditioning for the Scream gig?

CHAD VILLELLA: Well, it’s funny you bring up Ready or Not because Ready or Not kind of was our audition. Working [on the film] with the team at Project X — William Sherak, Paul Neinstein, and James Vanderbilt — that was very nice and they brought us in to Gary Barber at Spyglass. They said, “We think you’re the guys to help us make this movie,” and we couldn’t be more thankful for them doing that.

Scream 2022 Scream 2022 | Credit: BROWNIE HARRIS/ Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group

What was it like reading the script? And how similar was that screenplay to what people will see in cinemas?

MATT BETTINELLI-OLPIN: We went in to read the script and we took probably two-and-a-half, three hours to do it, because it was so good and we didn’t want to miss anything. It read like you were seeing the movie in the most realistic way. What people will see is pretty much what was on the page then. We changed some things out of necessity, but at the end of the day, the script we read and the movie you’re seeing are very very similar. They really wrote a great script.

The movie goes deep in the weeds with the horror genre. I thought I was having a stroke when some characters started discussing “elevated horror.” It was like someone had scooped out my brain and put it on a screen.

GILLETT: That’s how we felt reading it. We’ve always been reticent to step into a franchise because it’s so hard to create new tracks in something, especially when it’s been done so successfully. Obviously, we’re fans of the original four movies and all of Wes’ work, there was a sort of added layer of pressure with this. So we went in to reading that script and we were so blown away by the multiple layers of commentary in the movie and how, like you said, it felt like Guy and Jamie were inside our brains. There were moments when we were literally cheering when we reading the script.

The Scream series has been very well curated over the years compared to some other franchises. Was that an advantage or did it make your mission more daunting?

VILLELLA: It was an absolute advantage dipping into the Scream lineage and the way that worlds were connected through all four films. The conversation we all had, and Guy and Jamie [dealt with] wonderfully in the script, was, what is it like ten years later? Like, let’s just go and lean into the real world of Woodsboro, and what it is like ten years later, and hopefully continue this wonderful storyline that Wes and Kevin Williamson created 25 years ago.

Scream 2022 Credit: BROWNIE HARRIS/ Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group

As Scream fans, what was it like to step on to set and find yourself directing Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott?

BETTINELLI-OLPIN: Surreal. Just very, very unbelievable. Neve was invaluable in the pre-production process, kind of keeping it within the guard rails of what Scream is. She had a lot of great thoughts that all got worked into the script. Then, on set, Neve, Courteney (Cox), David (Arquette), they really helped guide us along the way in terms of what it was like during the original movies. We tried very hard to kind of marry our process to the process that they all went through in the first four movies, with Wes Craven, and the father-like figure that he was on set.

The new Scream is dedicated to Wes. Could you talk about how you pay homage to him in the film?

BETTINELLI-OLPIN: Our starting point was this has to be, on some level, a love letter to Wes Craven, Scream, and his other work. I would say throughout the making of the movie and within the finished product itself there’s so many little nods to Wes, there’s big nods to Wes. At the end of the day, the entire thing is ultimately a love letter to Wes from us. He’s one of the greatest directors, period, of his generation. To go into the movie already as fans, I think we all came out on the other side even bigger fans because we’ve gotten to know people [who knew him]. Everything we’ve heard and everyone we talked to about him has just been, he was the nicest, most supportive, loving man. So it’s daunting to pick up where he left off on Scream but it also was a real blessing for us.

Would you gentlemen be up for making another Scream film?

VILLELLA: I mean, we love Scream. This is why we’re filmmakers, we love being a part of this franchise. If everyone decides to have us back we would happily talk about the story and where it could possibly go.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Watch the trailer for the new Scream film below.

For interviews with cast and crew, behind-the-scenes tidbits and photos, and much more, pick up a copy of Entertainment Weekly’s Guide to Scream, available online or wherever magazines are sold.

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Twitter Debuts Branded Like, Custom Response Activations to Back Scream (2022)

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Twitter rolled out two activations Tuesday to back Friday’s theatrical release of Scream (2022) by Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group.

Sonia Ammar And Mikey Madison Talk Scream (2022) And The Film’s Representation - Exclusive Interview

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Mikey, you have some great scenes with Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox. Were you a fan of the original franchise, and how does it feel getting to carve out your own space in Woodsboro and act alongside some of the series’ icons?

Mikey Madison: I think all of us were so excited to work with Neve and Courteney and David [Arquette]. It was really exciting. [Looking at Sonia] I don’t know, how do you feel?

Sonia Ammar: It’s pretty insane. These are actors that we’ve seen on the screen so many times, and we’ve admired and kind of grown up watching [them]. To act with them, let alone just meet them, it was a crazy experience, and I feel very grateful and humbled, and yeah, what a dream.

I love that this movie and the “Scream” franchise as a whole tackle the idea of this toxic obsession and [the] hero-worshiping of real serial killers. What are your thoughts on this concept, and how do you think “Scream” personifies it?

Madison: I think “Scream” has always been very self-aware, and the directors and writers wrote the movie in a really intelligent way. I think we really wanted the film to represent the real world that we live in within that Woodsboro universe.

Ammar: It’s really cool to see how the script was written. It was really well-written, [including] the way it all intertwines together, like the legacy cast and the new cast and the story and all the fun Easter eggs, and also the reasons for certain things happening. It all makes sense in the end when you watch it, and it’s mind-blowing. It was very witty and intelligent and fun and well done.

‘Scream (2022)’: The Horror News Network Review

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Hollywood has been besieged with reboot/remake mania in the last decade plus, and the horror genre has certainly not been immune. Recent years has seen the Evil Dead, Halloween, Blair Witch and Candyman franchises (among many others) undergo major facelifts or just outright re-imaginings with varying degrees of success…..and Scream is no different. The sequels, MTV series and (half-hearted) 2011 reboot of the Wes Craven/Kevin Williamson masterpiece seemed to diminish the legacy with each successive entry…..and unfortunately Scream (2022) mostly follows that path.

Not that the attempt by directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (the duo behind Ready or Not) was not noble….it’s certainly an ambitious effort. In the end, however, there’s only so much a film entry in a wildly popular franchise can be self-referential (and even self-deprecating) in its declaration of being a “re-quel” (the current term for that reboot/sequel hybrid) before it seemingly falls into the actual stereotypes of that label. And not just for the irony, either……

Scream (2022), which is how this film will be referred rather than “Scream 5” (which is another running joke in the plot for the Scream/Stab lineage), starts out in strikingly familiar territory. A not-so-random attack on a young girl at home by the new Ghostface forces the community of Woodsboro, CA, to once again confront its serial-killing albatross. Names and faces have changed in 25 years, of course, however not enough to set this reign of terror apart from the others. No spoilers in this review, but I will say that pretty much every character from the original film is either present or represented in some way with this cast. The present crop of high-schoolers are fresh faces, but many are unknowingly haunted by the sins of their respective families. Victims of all ages and audience-recognition are either attacked or outright killed as our youngsters, with the aid of returning characters Dewey (David Arquette), Gail (Courtney Cox) and Sydney (Neve Campbell), must figure out the pattern and motives for these kills in order to stop them. And let’s not forget the biggest mystery…..who is Ghostface this time?

I’ll start with what I like about Scream (2022), because there actually is a lot. To the younger crowd both on the screen and in the audience, the original film is their version of Halloween: the point in their youth that they discover what a horror movie is and how they should feel about it. Almost like a measuring stick for the rest of the genre, past and present. This idea is hammered home consistently throughout the story, almost like a running gag. Is The Babadook better than Friday the 13th? To the younger crowd it is, as it represents the “new horror” they grew up on. The older crowd, of course, prefers the gory slasher flicks with little or no plot, and certainly no psychological aspect. Somewhere in the middle, perhaps at the birth of Scream/Stab in 1996, lies the common ground. The dialogue in this film is superb in that regard, loudly exclaiming the contrast between the old-school fans (Halloween) and the “newer” ones (Scream).

The kills in Scream (2022) are better than in previous films in the franchise, with the added gore and slow-moving and explicit violence serving to move the plot along with a purpose (unlike the last Halloween movies, where it’s just unnecessarily gratuitous.) With each kill, the audience (at least in my theater) was forced to react in a much-more visceral and emotional way than I have seen in a horror film in quite some time. Although the characters, especially the main non-legacy ones, are not developed in any real way, their inevitable confrontation with Ghostface still makes you care about them when the chips are down. This is a cool feat by Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, along with screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.

The problem sets in, however, when you realize that that settings and especially the character archetypes are basically the same as the original film. Again, in this way, it represents a viewing of a real-time reenactment of the fictitious Stab movie rather than the actual Scream. Sure the fresh-faced cast includes several actors that are currently hot with the younger crowd (Don’t Breathe’s Dylan Minnette and In The Heights’ Melissa Barrera among others), but it’s the legacy characters that carry this film to its conclusion (if there could even be one.) The acting is pretty good, though I became increasingly convinced that Jack Quaid was auditioning for a Joshua Jackson biopic at times. The teens serve their purpose, and the trio of original characters force them to realize the gravity of their situation. When the big self-aware discussion of the “re-quel” comes around, however, things go off the rails a bit. It’s okay to poke fun at yourself when it’s called upon, even in the horror genre. But if there really isn’t a pay off other than the anticipated and retread ending after 90 minutes of discussion about breaking this mold, than what you have is basically The Jay & Silent Bob Reboot with a body count. By now we’re all aware that there are “rules” for a horror movie, and now there are “rules” for the re-quel. But when those rules are a known formula, and that formula is followed to a tee, then what you have is fan service without a hint of unintentional satire. Jay and Silent Bob were honest with where they were going, at least.

I say all this, but will admit the most important reason we eagerly await the ending, the BIG un-masking, will always provide a pure adrenaline rush. That’s the point of a twist, right? Again, no spoilers here…..but as you’re left to re-wrap the ball of twine that was just laid at your feet more questions than answers seem to arise. How is this different from its predecessors? To me, if you mixed all of the Scream movies up to this point in a blender and splashed in a dash of The Rise of Skywalker (and yes the Star Wars movies are referenced here once again), what you are left with is Scream (2022).

Understandably the main point for the producers of Scream (2022) is to force us all to recall what we loved about the franchise in the first place, while at the same time laying the groundwork for future films. The “re-quel” strategy calls for a new cast, a legacy cast to bridge the gap, and plenty of fan service. Scream (2022) achieves this for sure, but is it enough to carry the franchise and its fans into a new era of Ghostface? My instinct says no, but in reality they will have plenty of opportunities in the future to change my mind.

2 ½ stars out of 5