Warning: Spoilers ahead for Scream 2022.
Scream 2022’s opening weekend theatrical earnings have been unprecedentedly successful, proving the horror genre is Disney’s biggest competition at the box office. While many movies and studios have faced trouble to gain audience attendance amidst the pandemic, Disney franchise movies have reliably succeeded - look no further than Spider-Man: No Way Home, which soared at the box office and smashed records to earn over $1 billion. Aside from a few franchise action and sci-fi films from Sony and Universal, Disney has long held the crown for box office hauls, but there’s still one genre that threatens its reign: horror, as proven by Scream 2022 finally being the movie to dethrone No Way Home in weekend earnings since December 17.
Paramount's Scream 2022 was filled with Easter eggs to classic slasher movies and references to past films in the franchise, making it a horror fan’s delight. While continuing the trend of Scream’s meta-commentary on horror rules, sequels, fandoms, and its own existence as a satirical slasher revival, Scream 5 also cleverly paved the way for a new generation of characters. The notion of a new generation taking over for Scream’s legendary characters was introduced in Scream 4, but since nearly all of the major characters died and only Jill (Emma Roberts) had a direct familial connection to the original, the passing of the torch didn’t stick. Scream 2022 ends with most of the teens with family connections to Scream 1996 characters still alive and geared with decades worth of horror knowledge, thus making the odds of a Scream 6 sequel with new and legendary survivors returning more likely. Considering the in-universe connections, Easter eggs, and plot setups, some viewers trained by Disney for post-credits teasers were likely disappointed upon realizing Scream isn’t that type of franchise.
Outside of arthouse films, movies under major directors, and blockbuster projects, horror movies in franchises like Scream have been some of the only pandemic-era releases to give Disney a run for its money at the box office. While none have been powerful enough to overtake an event movie with a broad audience like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Scream 2022’s successful opening weekend has proved horror a worthy adversary to Disney’s box office crown. When paired with the surprisingly triumphant theatrical runs of major 2021 horror movies like Halloween Kills, A Quiet Place Part II, and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Scream 2022’s flourishing attendance is a good sign for horror pushing back at Disney’s box office monopoly.
Scream 2022 Had A Huge Opening Weekend
Smashing opening weekend expectations, Scream 2022’s box office haul for its Friday-Monday Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday weekend debut was an unprecedented $36 million. Compared to the previous Scream movie installments, Scream 2022 comes in third for opening weekend earnings, though technically moves up to first place if including Monday for its holiday weekend debut. Not only is this number impressive for pandemic moviegoing, Scream 2022’s opening weekend box office success is one of the best January debuts in history. Much of this relies on the 25-year-long pull that Scream has had on audiences, but also its ability to bring in the niche, dedicated, and particularly young demographic of horror fans. Outside of superhero movies, Disney projects, and long-time action franchises, horror has been one of the only reliable genres at the movie theaters in recent years - pandemic or not. As such, it’s not too much of a surprise that Scream 2022 was able to unseat No Way Home - one of the highest-grossing films of all time - at the domestic box office in its debut weekend. For further context, Scream 2022’s $30.6 opening weekend Friday-Sunday numbers also outearns Disney’s 2021 movie debuts of Free Guy, Jungle Cruise, Encanto, and Cruella.
Horror Movies Have Outperformed Pandemic Box Office Expectations
While the pandemic has placed expectations for box office performance much lower than usual, horror movies have reliably managed to outearn expert predictions. A Quiet Place Part II was one of the first movies released when theaters began opening back up in Spring 2021, thus labeling itself a “back to theaters” event. The horror sequel managed to bring in $48.3 million in its domestic opening weekend for Friday-Sunday and $58.6 million for its four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend, which outearned its initial projection of $30-50 million. Similarly, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It was expected to bring in $19 million, and surprised box office experts by earning $24 million in its opening weekend. Candyman (2021) followed suit, with box office expectations of $20.7 million, only for its debut to rake in $22.4 million. The most surprising box office haul of Fall 2021 was Halloween Kills, the sequel to Halloween (2018), which premiered in theaters on October 15 and unprecedentedly smoked Ridley Scott’s (and Disney’s) The Last Duel in earnings. Halloween Kills was projected to earn $40 million, but ended up taking home $50 million in its opening weekend. With Scream 2022 opening to $35 million in January, a notable “dump month” for movies, horror has proved to be an outstanding box office exception during the pandemic.
Why Horror Is A Safe Bet For The Box Office
Just like Disney’s ever-successful superhero movies, the horror genre perfectly lends itself to the benefits of franchises, which typically do well in theaters. Horror movies like Scream 2022 are one of the most clear-cut examples of films that benefit from theatrical experiences - scares and suspense need dark spaces, quiet surroundings, loud sound, and giant screens for frightening detail in order for audiences to feel fully immersed in the terrifying world. The genre is also notable for being audience-interactive, where horror fans feel more comfortable with a much more fun experience when viewers scream alongside the characters, yell at characters for making mistakes, and cheer when the final girl makes it out alive. This is part of why Halloween Kills was so successful at the box office when it was also available to stream on Peacock - horror movies act as events when seen in theaters.
Horror movies also are much less of a risk to ticket-buyers when deciding the worth of paying to see it in theaters. As parodied in the five-film Scream franchise, horror fans know what they’re going to see because of how reliable the genre is, so whether or not the film is actually “good,” it’s typically a good time. When audiences go see Scream 2022, they know they’ll see teenagers slashed by a mysterious Ghostface; when they go see Halloween, they know they’ll see the invincible Michael Myers murder frightened Haddonfield residents. Horror movies’ box offices also aren’t as damaged by poor critical or audience reception as typical Disney films are - take Halloween Kills, for example, which was panned by critics but wildly outperformed its expectations and competition at the box office.
Disney's Biggest Weakness Is Horror
While Disney can reliably churn out sure-bets at the box office with categories like superhero movies, sci-fi franchises, and all-inclusive animated phenomena, the studio lacks proficiency in horror, one of the most reliable genres at the box office. Disney can make classic Halloween-set movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas, but they're historically kitschy and family-oriented, which aren’t going to draw in the niche horror fanatics that want Michael Myers in a mask or Sidney Prescott chasing down another Ghostface. Disney’s best-loved horror or gothic films are geared towards families, and many never even saw theatrical releases. While Disney acquired the rights to a few horror franchises like The Fly, Alien, and Predator from its deal with 20th Century Studios, the House of Mouse has yet to move forward on successfully rebooting or reinvigorating such films. Disney’s ownership of these horror projects has also worried viewers that the studio will gear them to be more family-friendly in the future, which isn’t apt to draw in the horror fans that elevated Halloween Kills and Scream 2022's box office triumphs. Therefore, until Disney creates a horror franchise on par with classic series or newer ventures like The Conjuring and A Quiet Place, the studio will continue facing its fiercest earnings competition with the likes of Scream 2022.