Last weekend’s box office results were far from impressive. While the industry saw a nice spike around Valentine’s Day earlier in the month, with Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights leading the market, my report last Sunday was all about how the industry offered few intriguing new options in wide release – allowing Tyree Dillihay’s GOAT to rise to the number one spot in the Top 10. In my feature recapping the numbers, I noted that it appeared as though Hollywood was basically paving a path for Kevin Williamson‘s Scream 7 to dominate at the end of the month, and seven days later, that’s exactly what has happened.
The slasher sequel was the only new wide release to arrive in theaters this past Friday, and it used all of its breathing room to put up the biggest opening weekend of the 2026 movie calendar so far. It’s huge news for the blockbuster, but it comes with a bit of an asterisk, as while the success is massive by franchise standards, the overall reception hasn’t exactly been something for the filmmakers and stars to brag about. You can check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
|
TITLE |
WEEKEND GROSS |
DOMESTIC GROSS |
LW |
THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Scream 7* |
$64,100,000 |
$64,100,000 |
N/A |
3,540 |
|
2. GOAT |
$12,000,000 |
$73,985,000 |
1 |
3,707 |
|
3. Wuthering Heights |
$6,952,000 |
$72,345,000 |
2 |
3,221 |
|
4. EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert |
$3,505,000 |
$7,825,335 |
7 |
1,940 |
|
5. Crime 101 |
$3,421,456 |
$30,067,868 |
4 |
2,607 |
|
6. I Can Only Imagine 2 |
$3,135,000 |
$13,261,000 |
3 |
3,105 |
|
7. Send Help |
$2,282,000 |
$59,403,729 |
5 |
2,500 |
|
8. How To Make A Killing |
$1,562,513 |
$6,289,203 |
6 |
1,726 |
|
9. Zootopia 2 |
$1,438,000 |
$425,842,244 |
9 |
1,350 |
|
10. Avatar: Fire And Ash |
$1,240,000 |
$401,245,883 |
10 |
1,225 |
Scream 7 Steamrolls The Competition At The Box Office With Big Results Worldwide
You know an opening weekend is successful when it proves to basically double the previous record holder for the year, and that’s precisely what Scream 7 has accomplished – per early reporting from The Numbers. Current results put the Neve Campbell-led movie at $64.1 million earned domestically since it arrived on the big screen on Friday, and that’s quite a lot more than the 2026 record-setting $32.8 million made by Wuthering Heights when it debuted a couple weeks ago.
Not just impressive by the standards of the young year, Scream 7 is also doing well to outperform ever single one of its predecessors, and it’s the second title in a row from the series to accomplish that particular feat. In 2023, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Scream VI set a new opening weekend record for the franchise, earning $44.4 million and topping the $34.7 million made by Wes Craven‘s Scream 3 in 2000. Now Kevin Williamson’s new release sits on top of the charts in that respect.
The success goes beyond the ticket sales in the United States and Canada too. In addition to the $64.1 million earned at home, foreign markets have contributed $33.1 million to the theatrical release’s success, bringing its worldwide total after three days up to $97.2 million. It has already outgrossed the aforementioned Scream 3, which completed its global run on the big screen making $96 million. Wes Craven’s original Scream, now just about nine months away from its 30th anniversary, still remains the highest grossing title in the franchise, having made $173 million in 1996/1997 (and that’s without accounting for inflation). It should go without saying that there will be a lot of interest in seeing if Scream 7 can be the title to dethrone it.
The big thing standing in the film’s way? One word: reception.
Scream 7 may now hold an IP record for the biggest opening weekend, but it seems that accomplishment comes in spite of word of mouth instead of as a result of it. The reaction from critics (arriving very late last week) came in sharp contrast to the response earned by its two predecessors in the franchise’s current era, which earned praise for keeping the spirit of the Wes Craven series alive following the filmmaker’s passing back in 2015. The reactions to the Kevin Williamson-directed entry have been far less friendly (I personally delivered a one-and-a-half star Scream 7 review for CinemaBlend).
It’s not just critics either, as audience ratings are also down for the new release. Audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes are lower for the 2026 slasher film than the response to either 2022’s Scream or Scream VI, and that pattern continues when one looks at the results from CinemaScore surveys: the new movie got a “B-” grade which ties Scream 4 for the weakest in the series (1997’s Scream 2, 2022’s Scream and 2023’s Scream VI hold a three-way tie for the best grade with their “B+” results). This doesn’t suggest that people are coming out of their local theater suggesting that all of their friends partake in the same cinematic experience.
What does this mean? While nothing is ever guaranteed, these metrics suggest that Scream 7 may have a tough go of it in March and have difficulty retaining its audience in the weeks ahead. Franchise curiosity, the mystery surrounding the identity/identities of the new Ghostface/s, and the return of Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott may have inflated ticket sales for the debut, but now that people have seen it and not loved what they’ve seen I imagine we’re going to see a significant drop-off come next Sunday.
The second weekend numbers will be one thing I keep an eye on next week, especially because the film should be getting some significant competition in wide release with the debut of Daniel Chong’s Hoppers – the latest feature from Pixar and the latest title to try and continue the successful trend of animation on the big screen (following in the wake of GOAT and Byron Howard and Jared Bush’s Zootopia 2, which was recently crowned the 2025 domestic box office champion). There will be plenty to discuss in seven days when the new Top 10 is published, so be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend for my full break down of the results.