The horror genre goes through hot and cold periods across Hollywood’s history. After the 1980s explosion of slasher films and other horror movies, the 1990s saw the studios (and audiences) turn against it almost entirely. Now, though, the 2020s may have horror at its beak, and we’ve seen it on full display this year alone. This year has seen the return of Sam Raimi to the genre after seventeen years with the survival horror Send Help, but one of the biggest signs of health in the genre is the success of Obsession, a film that actually went up almost 40% from its first weekend to its second, an anomaly.
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Another sign of the health of horror in film is that the seventh movie in a decades-long running franchise officially became the most successful in the entire series, with Scream 7 not only delivering the biggest opening weekend for the entire slasher franchise but also the biggest box office haul in total for the series. Now, Ghostface has come home. Paramount+ has finally brought the latest chapter of the Scream franchise home and is finally streaming Scream 7 for subscribers. Much like its box office success, Scream 7 is continuing a trend of success as it rocketed up the charts.
Scream 7 Dominates Streaming After Box Office Mayhem
As of this week, Scream 7 has officially started streaming on Paramount+, and subscribers wasted no time watching the latest chapter of Sidney Prescott’s encounter with a masked psycho killer. According to FlixPatrol, Scream 7 immediately became the #1 most-streamed movie on the Paramount+ platform. Not only did the film leap to the top spot without any delay, but it knocked Top Gun Maverick out of that position, a title it has held for weeks (the Tom Cruise sequel has been in the Top 10 for almost two years straight). Without even a warm-up day where it started lower on the list and climbed to the top spot, it’s clear as ever that Scream 7 is a major hit.
When Scream 7 opened, it managed to confirm that the love for the franchise was at an all-time high, opening to $63 million, the highest of the series by $19 million. The success of the film carried on, too, becoming the highest-grossing ever with a global box office total of $207 million, over $50 million higher than the previous winner of the series. Even more impressive than this box office total without context is that it managed to make this much money despite genuinely terrible reviews.
As of this writing, Scream 7, despite being the biggest financial success of the series, is also the lowest-rated of them all, with a dismal 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, accompanied by none other than that dreaded green splat. The only other film with a “Rotten” score on the platform is 2000’s Scream 3, with a 45% approval rating. Audiences, however, don’t seem as bothered by the film as critics, though. Scream 7 has a 74% audience approval rating on the platform, down from Scream VI’s impressive 90% audience score, but well above the likes of Scream 4 (57%), Scream 3 (38%), and even Scream 2 (59%), which is actually the highest-rated critically.
All of that in mind, though, Scream 7‘s box office success, audience interest, and immediate streaming success mean the series will no doubt find a way to make sure that Ghostface returns very soon. Screenwriting sisters Lilla and Nora Zuckerman have already been hired to write the eighth film in the series, but no release date or even cast have been confirmed. Given how both Scream VI and Scream 7 ended, it’s unclear who would even be the focus, but if any franchise has positioned itself as the Fast and Furious of horror, with an ever-rotating roster of characters, it’s Scream.
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