Paramount/Miramax’s “Scary Movie” will cruise to the No. 1 spot at the box office this weekend with an estimated $56 million opening weekend after earning $24.7 million from 3,490 locations on Friday.
The revival of the Wayans Brothers’ horror movie spoof series is blowing past Amazon MGM’s “Masters of the Universe,” which is shaping up to be a big-budget bust, and A24/Chernin’s “Backrooms,” which is proving to be as frontloaded as the “Star Wars” film “The Mandalorian and Grogu” albeit with less than a tenth of the P&A spend.
“Scary Movie,” the sixth installment in the series that began back in 2000, is earning the highest opening weekend for the franchise before inflation adjustment, the previous high being “Scary Movie 3” in 2003 with $49.7 million. The film was expected to bring out millennials nostalgic for the series with the hopes of drawing in Gen Z crowds with its parodies of recent horror hits like “Smile” and “Sinners,” and that is just what is happening.
As for reception to the film, which is unapologetically filled with politically incorrect humor, “Scary Movie” has earned a decent 71% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes but a more tepid C+ on CinemaScore. For comparison, the first two “Scary Movie” films, which were also directed by Damon and Marlon Wayans, earned CinemaScore grades of B and B-, respectively, while Paramount’s 2025 revival of “The Naked Gun” starring Liam Neeson and directed by Akiva Schaeffer got an A-.
That may make “Scary Movie” as frontloaded as some of the horror films it riffs on, but the film is already on its way to being a mid-budget theatrical hit as it carries a reported $30 million production budget financed entirely by Miramax.
Meanwhile, “Masters of the Universe” is looking powerless, heading for an estimated $30 million opening from 3,677 locations against a reported budget of at least $170 million. Even more than “Mandalorian and Grogu,” which is already out of the top 5 with a $9.5 million third weekend, “Masters” is set to be one of if not the biggest flops of the summer.
That’s because while “Masters of the Universe” is getting better reception than “Scary Movie,” it is not the sterling reception that usually portends a box office comeback with a B on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 66% critics and 88% audience. The CinemaScore grade is below the A- of both “Mandalorian and Grogu” and director Travis Knight’s 2018 “Transformers” spinoff “Bumblebee.”
While the live-action adaptation of the “He-Man” animated franchise was expected to bring out nostalgic Gen X men to theaters, it needs to find a wider audience to make back its production spend. With movies like “Scary Movie” and the other titles in the top 5 bringing out the under-30 crowd and Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” likely to attract older sci-fi fans, there may not be much room for word-of-mouth to spread.
“Backrooms” is in third this weekend with an industry estimated $25.4 million, marking a second weekend drop almost as “Mandalorian” at 69% as its Friday total of $7.9 million fell 79% from its opening day.
But that’s not a problem for A24 considering that Kane Parson’s hit horror film carried a production budget of just $10 million, while its running domestic total of $134.5 million through Sunday has already shattered the studio’s previous record of $97 million set by “Marty Supreme” this past winter.
In the long run, though, Focus Features’ “Obsession” will be the bigger hit at the box office. In its fourth weekend in theaters, the $1 million smash indie horror film finally saw a weekend-to-weekend drop…of just 9%. With $24.8 million grossed in its fourth frame, “Obsession” will pass the $150 million domestic mark on Sunday and become just the fifth horror film to pass $200 million in North America before inflation adjustment.
Completing the top 5 is Fathom/Glitch’s “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act,” which is projected for an industry estimated $14 million 3-day/$22 million 4-day weekend.
With largely faith-based titles like “The Chosen” and “The Blind” and anniversary re-releases like the 15th anniversary of Laika’s “Coraline,” Fathom has expanded beyond event releases by supporting theatrical offerings that have an audience that is not large enough for a full theatrical run but enough to fill up auditoriums for a weekend or two.
The final episode of Glitch’s cult hit animated series fits that description perfectly, as fans piled into theaters on Thursday to see the conclusion two weeks before its release on YouTube. For comparison, Fathom’s release of the first set of episodes of “The Chosen: Last Supper” in March 2025 made $13 million in its first four days of release.
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