Scream 5 Had a Great Weekend — Nabs $30.6 Million, Overthrows No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home has finally been eclipsed at the box office after a month at the top. According to studio figures released Sunday, Paramount Pictures' Scream 5 earned $30.6 million in ticket sales over the weekend.

Scream 5's three-day opening is in the same range as its predecessors'—Scream 2 made $32.9 million in 1997, and Scream 3 made $34.7 million in 2000. Scream 4, however, didn't make $20 million in 2011.

Scream 5: The ‘Re-quel’

There are now five films in the meta-horror franchise, which began in 1996 with the original slasher classic of the same name by Wes Craven. This new Scream follows a new Ghostface killer who is devoted to creating a "re-quel," merging fresh new characters (in this case, young people who are linked to people from the original films) with legacy characters.

All five films in the franchise have included Sidney Prescott (Néve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette). Marley Shelton has also reprised her role as Judy Hicks, who first appeared in Scream 4 in 2011.

Spider-Man: No Way Home could reclaim the top spot before February if Scream suffers a substantial decline, though this appears increasingly improbable.

Horror Sees Success in the Pandemic

During the pandemic, horror sequels are proving to be an uncommonly safe programming bet. A Quiet Place: Part II had a $47.5 million opening for Paramount, and Universal's Halloween Kills performed even better, with a $49.4 million debut just a few months ago.

Scream 5's box office debut is benefiting from the four-day holiday weekend, but it's still a fairly impressive showing for January horror during a pandemic spike. It may also dominate the next two weekends, as the next major wide release films of 2022 – Roland Emmerich's disaster drama Moonfall and Kenneth Branagh's second Agatha Christie adaption Death on the Nile – don't arrive until early February.

Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $5.1 million on Friday, bringing its three-day total to $21.4 million, with a four-day total of $26.7 million. No Way Home also surpassed Black Panther, another Marvel Cinematic Universe success, on the all-time ranking.