Scary Movie Scares Up a Franchise-Record $55M Opening

The Wayans brothers' horror-comedy reboot just proved spoofs still sell tickets, while a certain barbarian-king toy adaptation learned the opposite lesson the hard way.

Ticket sales told the whole story this past weekend at the multiplex.

Twenty years after the franchise last topped a chart, "Scary Movie" is suddenly the biggest comeback story at the multiplex. The sixth installment of the horror-spoof series opened to roughly $55 million domestically over its debut weekend, a new franchise high that overtook the $49.7 million set by 2006's "Scary Movie 4," according to industry box office trackers.

A Reunion Twenty Years in the Making

What appears to have driven audiences back into theaters is the reunion angle. The Wayans family returned to the screenwriting table together for the first time since 2001's "Scary Movie 2," with Marlon and Shawn Wayans reportedly stepping back in front of the camera as Shorty and Ray. Anna Faris and Regina Hall, whose Cindy and Brenda characters had been dormant since the 2006 entry, also came back for the new film, which was directed by Michael Tiddes. That nostalgia-driven lineup seems to have resonated, especially with audiences who grew up on the early-2000s spoof boom and are now bringing along a new generation of horror-comedy fans.

Concession lines reportedly stretched longer than usual for the franchise's comeback weekend.

Going Global, On a Modest Budget

The numbers look even better once you zoom out internationally. Reports indicate "Scary Movie" pulled in roughly $105 million worldwide from its first weekend across more than 50 markets, which would mark the franchise's biggest global start to date. That's a striking return given that Miramax is said to have financed the film for around $30 million, a fraction of what many modern theatrical horror or comedy releases cost. If those figures hold up in final counts, the math suggests the studio could be looking at a profitable run well before the film even reaches digital release.

The Other Side of the Coin: Masters of the Universe

Not every release sharing the same weekend had the same fortune. "Masters of the Universe," the long-gestating live-action adaptation of the He-Man toy line, opened to a reported $29 million or so domestically, a soft number against what's said to be a production budget in the $170-200 million range once marketing is factored in. Combined with international numbers, the film's global opening reportedly landed around $54 million total, well short of what a tentpole at that budget level typically needs in order to be considered a hit out of the gate. It's a reminder that built-in nostalgia alone doesn't guarantee a opening weekend payoff if the broader marketing and reviews don't align.

Two very different opening-weekend outcomes shared the same multiplex marquees.

What It Says About 2026's Box Office Mood

Zoom out further and the "Scary Movie" win fits a larger pattern industry watchers have been tracking all year: 2026's domestic box office is running notably ahead of last year's pace, with some estimates putting the year-to-date total around $4 billion by early June, well above the same point in 2025. May reportedly became the first billion-dollar month for North American theaters since before the pandemic, and June's lineup, stacked with horror, comedy, and nostalgia-driven sequels, seems to be carrying that momentum forward. For an industry that spent years being told theatrical was dying, a twenty-year-old spoof franchise outperforming a nine-figure toy adaptation feels like a small, telling plot twist of its own.