Scream 6 is poised to smash its already optimistic box office projections and take the No. 1 slot at the domestic box office this weekend. The film is the sixth in the long-running Scream franchise, moving the action to New York City as a new Ghostface killer targets Scream 2022’s survivors. This includes the Core Four – formerly estranged sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) and twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) – as well as tough-as-nails reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and the supposedly dead Scream 4 victim Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere).
Per Deadline, Scream 6‘s opening weekend is now projected to take in a domestic box office gross of $42 million. This smashes the original projections between $35 and $40 million, which already would have been the strongest opening of the entire Scream franchise. Not only that, it makes it so that the slasher sequel will beat the boxing drama Creed III to the No. 1 title this weekend, which was in doubt earlier in the week because of the Rocky spinoff’s record-breaking opening last weekend.
Scream 7 Seems Certain, But Will Everyone Come Back?
This opening weekend for Scream 6 shows an incredible groundswell of support for the new branch of the Scream slasher franchise. It’s even showing up the previous film’s gross, which was phenomenal despite the omicron surge putting a damper on theatrical ticket sales in general. Scream 6 was quickly greenlit off the back of Scream 2022’s opening week, so Scream 7 seems more or less inevitable given this result.
However, that begs the question as to which cast and crew members will be able to return for a third outing in this new trilogy. The core cast is made up of rising stars who will increasingly have other commitments, including Ortega’s stint on the Netflix hit Wednesday and Brown’s role on the buzzy Yellowjackets. Scream 2022 and Scream 6 directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are also committed to other projects, including a legacy sequel to John Carpenter’s Escape from New York.
Given how much money Scream 6 is making, it seems unlikely that anybody would turn down the chance to participate in the next entry. However, their busy schedules may force the next film to delay production. This is the same fate that befell the original Scream 3, which came out three years after 1997’s Scream 2, which itself came out less than a year after the original film.
Source: Deadline