Does tracking even matter anymore?

Nearly double projections, Scream 7 earned the best opening in the franchise to date with a terrifying tally of $64 million. Forget whatever you might know about the rules of horror movie box office returns. Scream 7 is behaving like Halloween (2018), which is insane when you consider the series turns 30 this Christmas. Just like Stab, these films are never going to actually die.

What was the secret sauce here? Returning Neve Campbell to star status instead of just a cameo role like in the more recent installments. Scream 7 went full legacy sequel and the results speak for themselves. For whatever reason, that didn’t work for Scream 4 back in 2011 (the last movie ever directed by Wes Craven before his passing), which is the only entry in the franchise to flop despite the original cast taking center stage there. Perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or maybe audiences wanted a return to basics after the “Ghostface Takes Manhattan” escapade Scream 6. I don’t know. I don’t make the rules. In any case, Scream 7 is our first true blockbuster of 2026.

Critically, Scream 7 wasn’t as well-received as others in the slasher saga, but it’s not like Ghostface has always gotten glowing reviews for all of his outings (Scream 3 got a brutal reception back in 2000, perhaps in part because the genre was under intense scrutiny following the events of Columbine the year before, and ironically makes fun of people blaming horror movies for real-life violence). Will this have an impact of legs? Who knows. Next weekend, there will be “competition” for the target demographic in the form of The Bride! (God I hate that stupid exclamation mark in the title), but that has been tracking terribly and I’m fully expecting it to bomb. Then again, with how “dependable” projections have been recently, maybe The Bride! will open to $100 million

Anyway, the top ten, via Box Office Mojo