Variety reports that Scream, a revival of the 1996 cult hit of the same name, topped the weekend American box office, dethroning Spider-Man: No Way Home after a four-week reign at the top.
Scream grossed $30.6 million in its first weekend and is expected to top $35 million over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The first-week box office results are a big triumph for the team behind the newest installment in the slasher film genre, given it cost only $25 million to make, and they show that there was a demand for the picture despite an 11-year gap since Scream 4.
“They re-invigorated the franchise for pre-existing fans and introduced it to new generation of fans,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s domestic distribution chief. “We’ve heard anecdotally that people have seen the film more than once or are planning to see it multiple times.”
After generating $20.8 million over the weekend, Spider-Man: No Way Home fell to second place, with a four-day total of $26 million. No Way Home also broke the $700 million barrier, making it the fourth-highest domestic grossing picture of all time, after Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avengers: Endgame, and Avatar.
According to IndieWire, this year’s four-day weekend box office was $73 million, up $10 million over last year’s total but well short of the levels generated prior to the epidemic.
Despite the epidemic, fans are still eager to go to the movies, as Spider-Man demonstrated. The next major movie office blockbuster will most certainly come in March, with the release of the highly anticipated The Batman.