“Scream 7” topped the box office on Friday, beating out last week’s champion “Wuthering Heights.”
The seventh installment in the long-running slasher series grossed $28.8 million from 3,540 locations in North America on Friday. Paramount and Spyglass are hoping for $60 million by opening weekend, which would be the biggest debut in series history.
“Scream 7” will see the return of Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell. She moves to the small town of Pine Grove to live a quiet life with her daughter, but Ghostface tries to burn down the entire town. Campbell will co-star with original cast members Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Matthew Lillard, as well as Isabel May, Jasmine Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Joel McHale, and McKenna Grace.
Paramount is poised for a huge payday, but getting “Scream 7” off the ground wasn’t easy. Pre-production was plagued by numerous major setbacks, including the departure of stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega and a major change in the creative team, with original Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson taking over the directorial reins from Christopher Landon. On top of that, Paramount and Spyglass had to pay Campbell $7 million to return after he left Scream 6 due to pay disputes.
On Friday, Sony’s “GOAT” ranked second with $2.6 million domestically. The animated family film about professional animal athletes is on track to gross $11.7 million through Sunday. GOAT is expected to gross $73 million at the North American box office through its first three weekends.
In third place was Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, which earned an estimated $2.2 million in its third Friday in North American theaters. The hot literary adaptation has grossed $7 million through Sunday and is expected to take its domestic total to $72 million.
In fourth place was “Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined,” which Rivals estimates brought in $2.1 million from just 770 theaters in North America on Friday. The concert film, which captures the group’s Mexico City performance in front of 65,000 fans, is expected to reach $3.5 million by Sunday.
In fifth place was Crime 101, which robbed just $920,107 domestically on Friday. Amazon MGM is expecting $3.34 million by Sunday, which would bring the film’s domestic total to $29.9 million.
