“Scary Movie” will contend with another scary movie, A24’s breakout horror hit “Backrooms,” for No. 1 at the domestic box office.
Paramount and Miramax’s R-rated “Scary Movie” is aiming for $45 million to $50 million from 3,400 North American theaters in its opening weekend. Should ticket sales reach the higher end of that range, “Scary Movie” will set a franchise record, a benchmark that currently belongs to 2006’s “Scary Movie 4” with $49.7 million (not adjusted for inflation).
Exhibitors are bullish on the newest installment in the 25-year-old parody series, especially since horror and nostalgia have been fueling the box office. There’s so much new material to spoof — “Get Out,” “Weapons,” “M3GAN,” “Longlegs,” “Scream” and even “Backrooms” are among the targets this time around — since the last “Scary Movie” was released in 2013. Yet there’s a ton of unexpected competition at multiplexes given the smash success of “Backrooms” and “Obsession,” two horror films that struck a chord with Gen Z. Last weekend, Kane Parson’s “Backrooms” obliterated expectations with $81 million domestically and is poised to earn as much as $48 million to $50 million in its sophomore outing. Meanwhile Curry Barker’s “Obsession” has enjoyed unprecedented week-to-week increases in ticket sales, picking up $105 million in North America and $150 million globally after three weekends of release. Since all three films have very different tones, they should be able to coexist at the box office.
