Scary Movie rode the recent horror wave at the box office by setting an impressive new record for the series this weekend. Following in the footsteps of Obsession and Backrooms, the latest instalment in the parody franchise opened top at the US box office with $55 million.
Despite being branded "deeply, offensively unfunny" and a "catastrophic misfire" by critics, Scary Movie not only enjoyed the biggest-ever opening for the series at the US box office, but also the best-ever worldwide opening for the series with $105.5 million from 53 markets.
The movie still has a way to go to become the highest-grossing Scary Movie outing which, rather confusingly, is currently Scary Movie (2000) which took $278 million worldwide. The new movie has already overtaken the final $78.6 million global result of Scary Movie V.
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"This is an outstanding opening for a comedy sequel this far into its series. It's also a huge bounce-back after the last [instalment] in 2013 crashed when Anna Faris and Regina Hall were excluded," FranchiseRe's David A Gross told Variety.
Scary Movie's current 24% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes marks the third-lowest rating of the series, ahead of only Scary Movie V (4%) and Scary Movie 2 (13%). A large part of the audience draw for the new movie was likely the return of the Wayans brothers for the first time since Scary Movie 2.
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Marlon, Shawn and Keenen Ivory Wayans co-wrote and produced the new movie, with Marlon and Shawn reprising their roles as Shorty Meeks and Ray Wilkins, respectively. It marked their first collaboration in 17 years, with the movie also bringing back a host of original cast members alongside Anna Faris and Regina Hall.
The marketing for the new movie also saw a series of spoof posters that put the Scary Movie characters into the likes of Backrooms and Weapons, while the first trailer – which debuted exclusively in cinemas with Scream 7 – marked the second-biggest trailer debut when it finally landed online with more than 410 million views in its first week.
Scary Movie is in cinemas now.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
