‘Scary Movie’ Tops North American Box Office on Opening Weekend
Los Angeles — Paramount’s horror-comedy Scary Movie topped the North American box office in its opening weekend, earning an estimated 55 million U.S. dollars over three days.
According to figures released Sunday by measurement firm Comscore, the R-rated film opened strongly in the domestic market.
The film is the sixth installment in the Scary Movie series, following Scary Movie 5, which was released in 2013. Its latest entry marks the franchise’s return after a long gap.
Internationally, Scary Movie also performed well, grossing an estimated 50.5 million dollars. This brought its global opening-weekend total to 105.5 million dollars.
Despite its strong commercial debut, the film received weak reviews from critics. On review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, it earned an approval rating of 26 percent based on 94 reviews. It also received a “C+” grade on CinemaScore’s “A+” to “F” scale.
Another new release, Amazon MGM’s live-action film Masters of the Universe, opened in second place with an estimated 29.3 million dollars.
A24’s horror film Backrooms rounded out the top three. In its second weekend, the film earned 25.9 million dollars, bringing its North American total to 135 million dollars.
The strong opening of Scary Movie suggests that audience interest in the horror-comedy genre remains significant, even as critical response to the film has been limited.
