What Scary Movie 2026's Box Office Means For The Future Of The Franchise

Paramount Pictures

Hit comedies have been very, very hard to come by at the box office in recent years, especially pure comedy for the sake of comedy. Well, the Wayans Brothers have done their part to help revive the genre, as the new "Scary Movie" had a much bigger-than-expected debut at the box office.

Directed by Michael Tiddes, "Scary Movie" opened to an estimated $55 million domestically over the weekend, with an additional $50.5 million coming from overseas giving it a $105.5 million global start. Against a reported $30 million budget, that means it's pretty much instantly profitable for Paramount Pictures. As expected, "Scary Movie" buried Amazon's "Masters of the Universe," with the latest live-action take on the 1980s franchise opening to just $29.3 million. It wasn't even a fight.

Traditional Hollywood logic from the 2010s might have told you that the He-Man movie would trounce the horror parody. No longer. Instead, early 2000s nostalgia, aided by a lot of imagery inspired by massive horror hits of recent years, helped bring this franchise back from the dead in a big, bad way. Meanwhile, another property from yesteryear is struggling despite earning solid reviews. 

"Scary Movie" was dubbed a "trash fire that aims low" by Witney Seibold in his review for /Film. But critics have never been a fan of these movies, and they didn't move the needle much in this case. The sixth entry in the franchise carries a lousy 25% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes to go along with a 69% audience rating. That said, it did earn a pretty bad C+ on CinemaScore, so word of mouth might not be great. Still, even if this film didn't make one more dime, Paramount would probably be willing to roll the dice on another sequel.

Paramount Pictures

Regardless of genre, if we just want to look at dollars-and-cents comparisons, the math for "Scary Movie 7" starts to make sense in a hurry. This movie is going to make more than "Smile 2" ($138 million worldwide/$28 million budget), "Freakier Friday" ($153 million worldwide/$42 million budget), and the box office flop that was "Tron: Ares" ($142 million worldwide/$220 million budget). These examples are a little random, but you get the idea. This film already looks like an outstanding investment after a single weekend.

Even looking at this franchise specifically, 2013's "Scary Movie V" made $78 million worldwide in total. This latest installment probably won't match the high highs of 2000's original "Scary Movie," which pulled in $277 million worldwide, but it could easily overtake "Scary Movie 2" ($141 million) and "Scary Movie 3" ($155 million). It's even got a good shot at overtaking "Scary Movie 4" ($178 million) despite the bad reviews.

Paramount will almost certainly back up the money truck to Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, and all of the other key players in order to get them to agree to make a sequel as soon as possible. Just as "Scream" helped revive the slasher genre in 1996 and paved the way for the original "Scary Movie," "Scream" was revived in 2022 and, in some ways, helped pave the way for this legacy sequel. Even "Scream 7" was a box office hit that secured the future of the franchise earlier this year.

Now, the cycle continues. "Scary Movie 7" will almost certainly be a thing. Box office history is sort of repeating itself, driven by generational nostalgia on behalf of younger millennials and Gen Zers.

"Scary Movie" is in theaters now.