Scary Movie is the longest-running horror comedy franchise in movie history, but Scary Movie 6 looks unlikely to ever happen, for a few reasons. It's no secret that the Scary Movie series isn't exactly high art. In fact, one could argue that the humor found in them is generally targeted at the lowest common denominator. However, fans of the films would argue that immature or not, there are enough jokes and gags thrown at the viewer in rapid-fire fashion that something is bound to make them crack up eventually.
While it's not an unreasonable assertion that the Scary Movie style of horror comedy changed the genre for the worse, at least for a long time after they became popular, the fact that the films were indeed popular isn't in dispute. The franchise as a whole raked in a cool $830 million worldwide, so there's no contesting that despite an army of detractors, Scary Movie does have some loyal fans. None of them were particularly high budget affairs either, making a lot of that pure profit.
With that in mind, one might think a Scary Movie 6 could be in the cards for the not too distant future. After all, Scary Movie 5 came out not all that long ago in 2013. Unfortunately for fans, there are things working against it.
Why Scary Movie 6 Will Probably Never Happen
Now, it's no surprise that Scary Movie 5 was hated by critics. After all, not a single entry in the series scored a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and these aren't the kind of films made for critics anyway. Even by that scale though, Scary Movie 5 came up short, sporting an anemic 4 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, way down from even the 35 percent earned by Scary Movie 3 and 4. More importantly, Scary Movie 5 tanked at the box office, at least when compared to the prior entries. It's the only Scary Movie to make less than $100 million worldwide, and actually grossed a whole $100 million less than part 4 to boot. A critical and commercial failure of such magnitude doesn't make studios hyped for a sequel.
Additionally, there's another factor in play. All five Scary Movie installments were distributed by Dimension Films, run by now disgraced brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Dimension went under after the #MeToo scandal tarnished both men publicly, and its assets were acquired by Lantern Entertainment. Since then, Lantern has only made moves to revive two franchises previously owned by Dimension, Hellraiser and Scream, both much higher profile than Scary Movie. While it's of course not set in stone that Scary Movie 6 won't ever be made, it seems more likely than not.