411 Box Office Report: Scream 7 Takes Top Spot With Franchise-Best $64 Million

Ghostface murdered the box office this weekend as Scream 7 blew past expectations for the #1 spot. The latest film in the slasher franchise took in an astounding $64.1 million in its launch weekend. That is way, WAY above the $40 million to $45 million that was expected going into the weekend. The opening reps the best start of 2026 to date, almost doubling the previous #1 in Wuthering Heights’ $32.8 million start, and the best weekend of any film in 2026 ahead of Avatar: Fire & Ash’s $41.4 million in its third weekend to start the year.

Scream 7 is also far and away the best opening weekend for any film in its franchise. The previous franchise record holder was Scream VI, which opened to $44.4 million in March of 2023. How good was Scream 7’s start? The opening weekend is almost double the entire domestic run for Scream 4 ($38.2 million) in 2011 and is not that far behind the entire domestic runs of Scream 3 ($89.1 million in 2003) and the fifth Scream ($81.6 million in 2022).

There’s a lot to unpack here, in part because Scream 7 had such a troubled production. The film went through a major creative shift when Melissa Barrera was fired from the franchise for comments she made about the Hamas-Israel conflict. Jenna Ortega then dropped out and the new director, Christopher Landon, exited. That resulted in Kevin Williamson coming on to direct and a creative retooling that brought back Neve Campbell.

There was some concern that all the controversy might result in a lowered box office. But as I’ve said many times, off-screen controversy is almost always overblown when it comes to affecting theatrical receipts. In this case, audiences were more into the franchise — even with lower critical regard and even word of mouth. Scream 7 has the lowest reviews of the franchise with a 34% Rotten Tomatoes aggregated critic score, and the lowest audience score since Scream 4 at 78% (that’s still way higher than the 57% for Scream 4, 38% for Scream 3 and even the 59% for Scream 2. The CinemaScore is a B-, which ties the fourth film for the franchise low.

None of that scared off moviegoers obviously, and even with lower word of mouth the hold throughout the weekend was strong. Scream 7 also got off to a decent start overseas with $33.1 million for a worldwide gross of $97.2 million. Even if this film completely tanks after this, it’s going to end up profitable against a $45 million production budget. It will likely follow the patterns of Scream 2022 and Scream VI which would give it as high as $150 million domestic. Looks like Scream 8 is in the bag at this point.

GOAT weathered the slasher storm well, serving as a family friendly movie option in its third weekend with $12 million. That’s down just 29% from last weekend’s numbers. The Sony Pictures Animation film is performing very well at this point and has $74 million domestically and $130.5 million worldwide. The film still has to keep going in order to make back its $80 million budget, but it shouldn’t have problems doing that, with a likely $95 million domestic take or perhaps even more.

Wuthering Heights fell further than GOAT again but is in great shape thanks to the overseas numbers (not that the domestic numbers are anything to sneeze at). The literary adaptation from Emerald Fennell took in $7 million, down 50% from last weekend. It now has$72.4 million stateside and $192 million worldwide, making it headed toward profit despite the $80 million budget. The US numbers should land somewhere around $90 million in the end.

A new concert film came in at #4 with Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined. The rock band’s film, which documents their show at in Mexico City, grossed $4.3 million. That’s quite solid for a concert film that doesn’t center on Taylor Swift or Beyonce.

Trafalgar Releasing is behind this film, which performed head over heels better than the last Twenty One Pilots concert film Twenty One Pilots: Cinema Experience in May of 2022. That film brought in $875,000. These films tend to be special one-weekend engagements so don’t expect to see this one in the top 10 next week, but the studio got what they wanted out of it.

Speaking of concert films, NEON’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert expanded in theaters and increased its gross. The Baz Luhrmann-directed documentary was up 9% from last weekend with $3.5 million. That brings the film to an impressive $7.8 million domestically and $14.4 million worldwide, great numbers for a concert doc. It’s hard to say how well the film will do or if it will even be in theaters much longer, but NEON is very happy with how it’s performed. Against a $10 million budget, it will be profitable once it hits digital viewing.

Crime 101 stabilized a bit as the Amazon MGM Studios neo-noir crime drama brought in $3.4 million. That’s down just 38% in its third frame. Again, this film was expensive with a $90 million budget so with $30.1 million domestically and $57.2 million worldwide, it’s losing money in theaters. But Amazon is using this as a loss leader for Prime Video subs, and they’ll be okay in the end. A $35 million to $40 million stateside final is likely.

I Can Only Imagine 2 did what faith-based films tend to do and dropped, down 60% in its sophomore weekend to $3.1 million. The drama sequel has now totaled $13.3 million, which is fine enough considering the $8 million budget. It is still likely to close out close to $20 million.

Send Help edged down 36% in its fifth weekend, adding $2.8 million to its tally. The Sam Raimi film is doing quite well with $59.9 million stateside and $87.5 million worldwide. On a $40 million budget that’s a good number and it’s still likely to end its run at $65 million domestically.

How To Make a Killing dropped 55% in its second weekend to gross $1.6 million. The Glen Powell-led film continues to suffer against the genre competition and has $6.3 domestic, with a negligible amount of money overseas. A24 is only on the hook for $5 million to distribute so they’re going to make money once it hits digital with a final domestic gross somewhere around $8 million to $10 million.

Zootopia 2 spent one last weekend in the top 10, its 14th, as it was down 35% to $1.4 million. The animated sequel continues is now the highest-grossing domestic film released in 2025 with $425.8 million stateside and $1.859 billion worldwide. Its budget was $150 million, making it a megahit.

Scream 7 will be in a fight for #1 next weekend, as it goes up against Hoppers. The Disney animated film will target $25 million or so for its opening weekend. Warner Bros. The Bride is looking at $10 million or so.

Box Office Top Ten (Three-Day Domestic Numbers)

1. Scream 7 – $64.1 million ($64.1 million domestically, $97.2 million WW)
2. GOAT – $12 million ($74 million total, $130.5 million WW)
3. Wuthering Heights – $7 million ($72.3 million total, $192 million WW)
4. Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined – $4.3 million ($4.3 million total, $$4.3 million WW)
5. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert – $3.5 million ($7.8 million total, $14.4 million WW)
6. Crime 101 – $3.4 million ($30.1 million total, $57.2 million WW)
7. I Can Only Imagine 2 – $3.1 million ($13.3 million total, $13.3 million WW)
8. Send Help – $2.8 million ($59.9 million total, $87.5 million WW)
9. How To Make a Killing – $1.6 million ($6.3 million total, $6.3 million WW)
10. Zootopia 2 – $1.4 million ($425.8 million total, $1.859 billion WW)