On Friday, the U.S. box office made $28.8 million, including $7.8 million from Thursday previews.
These previews started just as David Ellison's Paramount-Skydance learned that the path was clear for a big deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. This deal would be the largest leveraged buyout in history and has caused big changes in Hollywood, especially since Netflix stepped back. Many people are sad because it will reduce the number of major Hollywood studios from five to four and lead to lots of job losses in film, TV, and corporate areas.
Back to *Scream 7*, the movie shows why many genre films aren't affected by bad reviews.
The movie's big win was getting Neve Campbell back after she wasn't in the last film. Right now, it has a low critics' score of 33 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score is higher at 78 percent, which is considered good. Studios usually like at least 80 percent. The movie also got a B- CinemaScore, which is a strong grade for a horror film.
The audience was very diverse, with a fairly even split between men and women.
Also, a lot of younger people came to see the movie, especially those aged 18 to 24 and 25 to 34.
Even though Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein were chosen as co-chairs of Paramount Pictures, they worked with newly hired marketing head Josh Goldstine to make sure the movie was a success.
Spyglass fully made the movie, while Paramount shared half of the $45 million budget.
The film easily beat the previous record-holder, *Scream VI*, which opened to $44.4 million in March 2023 and $67.1 million in the same year.
Spyglass chief Gary Barber said, "This historic, franchise record-breaking box office performance is a testament to the enduring legacy created by our director Kevin Williamson 30 years ago, led by the incomparable Neve Campbell, breakout star Isabel May, legacy stalwart Courteney Cox and the entire cast."
He also thanked the new leaders at the movie studio for their great work.
Earlier, Paramount was expecting a $40 million opening for *Scream 7*, which would still have been the best three-day start of the year.
However, tracking numbers were even more positive, with the National Research Group predicting $45 million.
Another big factor in *Scream 7*'s success was that it was the first *Scream* movie to play in Imax and other premium formats.
These formats made up 40 percent of the total gross, with Imax alone contributing 9 percent. Imax rarely gives a big part of its screens to a horror movie, but there hasn't been much big event content coming up in 2026.
Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original *Scream* and its first few sequels, directed the seventh installment.
The story follows Sidney (Neve Campbell) and her daughter (Isabel May) as they return to a small town, where they encounter a new Ghostface killer. The daughter's name is Tatum, the same as Rose McGowan's character in the 1996 *Scream*, who was killed in the first movie.
A trailer released in October focused on Ghostface targeting Sidney and Tatum, with Sidney teaching her daughter how to survive the killer.
Another ad aired during the Super Bowl, showing how important the *Scream* franchise is to the new leadership at Paramount. In addition to Neve Campbell, original star Courteney Cox returns as reporter Gale Weathers.
While Neve Campbell's return was highly anticipated, two stars from the revival films *Scream* (2022) and *Scream VI* are not returning.
Melissa Barrera was fired from *Scream 7* due to her social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war. Jenna Ortega left the film on her own before the firing was made public. Christopher Landon, who was set to direct the next horror sequel, also quit after intense fan backlash over Barrera's firing, even though he wasn't the one who fired her.
Other returning actors include David Arquette as Dewey Riley, completing the legacy trio with Sidney and Gale.
Matthew Lillard is back as Stu Macher, and Scott Foley returns as Roman Bridger, Sidney's half-brother. Siblings Chad and Mindy, played by Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown, are also in *Scream 7*.
Among other movies, *Sony Picture Animation's* *The Goat* dropped 29 percent to an estimated $12 million, finishing in second place.
It's doing well overseas with $56.5 million, for a global total of $130.5 million when including its domestic earnings of $73.9 million.
*Wuthering Heights* is doing very well, however, with a global total near $200 million.
In the U.S., it made $6.9 million for a domestic total of $73.9 million. It's also doing well overseas, making another $15.6 million this weekend with a foreign total of $119.7 million and a worldwide total over $194 million.
After that, there was a tight competition among four films. The new concert documentary Twenty Pilots: I Can't Believe This is My Life seemed to have come in fourth. Neon and Baz Luhrmann's EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert was close behind, with an estimated $3.7 million for a 10-day total of $7.8 million. Amazon MGM's holdover, Crime 101, made another $3.4 million, bringing its domestic total to $38.1 million. Meanwhile, Lionsgate's I Can Only Imagine dropped 60 percent in its second week, earning an estimated $3.1 million for a 10-day total of $13.3 million.
Neon's Luhrmann film, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, expanded to more theaters this weekend after making a strong $3.3 million from 325 Imax showings last week.
It's now playing in 1,608 locations and received an A+ CinemaScore from audiences on Friday, following positive reviews. The film comes four years after Luhrmann's acclaimed biopic Elvis, featuring Austin Butler, which was widely discussed.
