'Scream' slashes 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' with $30.6M box-office debut

NEW YORK – After a month at No. 1, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has finally been overtaken at the box office. The “Scream” reboot made its debut with $30.6 million in ticket sales for the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“Scream,” a self-described “requel” that is both the fifth film in the franchise and a relaunch introducing a new younger cast, led all releases for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The film is forecast to earn $35 million including Monday’s grosses. “Scream,” which cost about $24 million to make, added another $18 million in 50 international markets.

That made for a solid revival for the self-aware slasher franchise. This “Scream,” helmed by Matt Bettinello-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, was the first not directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015. It features original “Scream” cast members Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette alongside new additions Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega and Jack Quaid.

Most notably, “Scream” is the first box-office success in a year that Hollywood hopes will see a return to weekly stability at movie theaters. January is typically a quiet period at the box office, but the surge of the omicron variant in COVID-19 has further upended release plans of some winter movies.

“All of our traditional measures were indicating a solid opening, but as I kept telling people: We’re still in this thing and it’s very difficult to determine what will actually happen,” says Chris Aronson, distribution chief for Paramount. “Now we’re open, people have seen (“Scream”) and we’re off and running. Hopefully this becomes another building block toward building the business back and getting it back to some semblance of normalcy.”

Meanwhile, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” slipped to second place but continued to rise in the record books.

“No Way Home” grossed $20.8 million in its fifth weekend of release. “No Way Home” is predicted to reach a domestic cumulative total of $703.9 million on Monday, edging “Black Panther” and moving into fourth place for the biggest films of all-time in the U.S. That puts it behind only “Avatar” ($760 million), “Avengers: Endgame” ($858 million) and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($936 million). Globally, “No Way Home” has grossed $1.6 billion.

“Sing 2” landed in third place in its fourth weekend with $8.3 million for three days. The animated sequel has grossed $122.1 million domestically and $96.3 million internationally.

While the debut of “Scream” was cause for celebration, its performance also typified current box-office realities: Superhero movies and genre films that appeal to younger audiences have bounced back to near pre-pandemic levels, while films skewing older haven’t.

“Scream,” which received largely favorable reviews (75% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a B+ from audiences on CinemaScore), fared better than the last installment, 2011’s “Scream 4.” That film launched with $19.3 million. The audience for the new “Scream” was 42% under the age of 25, Sony said. But any success needs to pull from various demographics, and “Scream” also appealed to fans of the early franchise entries. Some 23% of ticket buyers were over 35.

The only other new widely released movie for the weekend was “Belle,” Mamoru Hosoda’s critically acclaimed anime riff on “Beauty and the Beast.” It debuted with $1.6 million in 1,326 theaters.

Final numbers are expected Tuesday.