Weekend Box Office: Scream VI opens with franchise best $44.5 Million

Franchises seem to be having a moment right now. Last week we saw Creed III open with a series best $58.3 million and this week we are seeing the Scream series have its best opening ever as Scream VI over-performed to the tune of $44.5 million. That is a a healthy $9.8 million over previous series champ Scream 3’s $34.7 million opening back in February of 2000 and $14.49 million over the previous films $30.01 million opening just last year. 

Horror movies do tend to be front loaded as fans of the genre tend to rush out to see the latest scary movie as soon as possible, that is especially true for something like Scream that plays more like a murder mystery where the second the film hits theaters, spoilers are all over the internet, don’t worry, no spoilers here. I just couldn’t believe that… just kidding! Last years Scream dropped nearly 60% in its second week while Scream 3 lost 53%. So it will be interesting to see what type of drop this latest installment has in the coming weeks, especially with some strong competition on the calendar. Of course with reviews like the 9/10 from our own JimmyO and a 93% audience score, this one may actually have some decent legs.

Second place this weekend is Creed III which is seeing a 53% drop from last weekend with $27.1 million. That number falls in line with the previous film’s 53.2% drop and is a bit steeper than the first Creed’s 49.4% drop. Of course the important thing here is that Creed III has reached the $100 million mark far quicker than any previous entry in the franchise and that is only the beginning as Michael B. Jordan is in the early stages of a full fledged “Creed-verse” at Amazon with several projects currently being discussed. As a Rocky enthusiast, I’m not sure I want too many projects related to the IP, especially if Sylvester Stallone, the man for whom none of this would be possible, is not involved. I guess time will tell, but one thing is for sure, people are enjoying this latest chapter of the Creed story.

Third place goes to the Sam Raimi produced 65 starring Adam Driver with an estimated $12.3 million coming in ahead of projections. Marketing for this film painted it as an almost Jurassic Park meets Interstellar style action film, and just like a lot of other people, that concept completely sold me. Sadly, the film we got just doesn’t live up to the promise of that trailer. I can’t even really mince words: I just really did not like this movie! It was a bit boring and had several plot points that just made little to no sense to me. It looks like for the most part critics and audiences agree with me as it currently has a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score with a C+ Cinemacore. Not all critics hated it as our own Chris Bumbray gave it a 6/10 in his review, not a glowing recommendation, but certainly not the 2/10 I would have given the film. I do think next week we will see this one sink like a log.

The other new release of the week, the Bobby Farrelly directed Champions starring Woody Harrelson and the bird herself Kaitlin Olson, opened in seventh place with just $5.15 million. Not exactly an opening that will put it in the record books. While critics were split on this one with a 53% Rotten Tomatoes score (including a solid 8/10 from our own Chris Bumbray), the $5.15 million worth of audience members who saw the film seemed to enjoy what they saw with a pretty great 96% audience score and an A cinemascore.

Rounding out the top five are Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in fourth place with $7 million as it nears the $200 million domestic mark followed by Cocaine Bear in fifth place with $6.2 million. Sixth place is Jesus Revolution with $5.17 million and a $39.4 million total. That is pretty solid business for the faith based film. A lot of times these movies make a splash in their opening weekend and then quickly fade to obscurity, but this one has stuck around since it opened, meaning strong word of mouth.

Rounding out the top ten is the thirteenth week of James Cameron’s  Avatar: The Way of Water pulling in an additional $2.7 million which moves its domestic total to $674.6 million as it officially pulls ahead of Cameron’s own Titanic to become the eighth highest grossing domestic release of all time. Coming in ninth place is another niche audience film: Crunchyroll Studios Demon Slayer: To The Swordsmith Village with an additional $1.8 million which represents a pretty sizable 81% drop from last week. And despite being available to purchase on disc for nearly two weeks, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is showing the true staying power of a great family film at the box office as it adds another $1.6 million to its impressive domestic total of $179.6 million. 

Did you make it to theaters this weekend? If so what did you see (and do you recommend it or not)? Also don’t forget to check out this weeks poll, in honor of Oscar Sunday officially being upon us, we want to know what your Favorite Best Picture Winner is?