'Scream 7' Pushes the Iconic Horror Franchise Past a Stunning $1 Billion Milestone

Image via Phil Bray/©Dimension Films/courtesy Everett Collection

Published Mar 8, 2026, 10:34 AM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

The chasm between critics and audiences was felt a week ago when Scream 7 defied poor reviews to deliver the biggest box office debut in the history of the slasher franchise. The movie marks the return of star Neve Campbell, who declined to return for Scream VI because of a salary dispute. Scream 7 also attracted controversy when Melissa Barrera, who played the lead in the fifth and sixth films, was fired after social-media posts that many perceived as insensitive. Despite the setbacks, Scream 7 grossed nearly $64 million in its domestic opening weekend, which is around $20 million more than the franchise's previous record opening of $44 million, earned by Scream VI in 2023. Thanks to the film's solid performance so far, the decades-old Scream franchise has passed the coveted $1 billion mark at the global box office.

In its second weekend of release, Scream 7 fended off competition from the period sci-fi movie The Bride!, which underperformed in its debut. Scream 7 was able to claim the number two spot on the domestic chart behind Pixar's Hoppers, despite a hefty 74% drop from the previous weekend. With more than $90 million domestically so far, Scream 7 is inching toward the $150 million mark worldwide, against a reported budget of $45 million. It will likely become the franchise's top-grossing installment when the dust settles. To achieve this milestone, it would need to overtake the $173 million lifetime global haul of Wes Craven's original Scream from 1996.

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By Macklen Makhloghi

Here's the Benchmark That 'Scream 7' Needs to Cross

Scream 2 grossed $172 million worldwide, and Scream 3 concluded its run with $161 million worldwide. The soft-reboot, Scream 4, remains the lowest-grossing installment of the series, with $97 million in global box office revenue. The 2022 reboot directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, on the other hand, breathed new life into the franchise with positive reviews and nearly $140 million at the worldwide box office. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, who are also known as Radio Silence, returned to direct Scream VI, which made $169 million worldwide. The franchise's combined haul stands at just under $1.1 billion worldwide. Barring an unforeseen circumstance, Scream 7 should be able to overtake the four films ahead of it in the coming days. This would be ironic, since it's the least-liked movie of the franchise by far. It holds a 32% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, "Less a return to Scream's roots than a disappointing creative regression, this seventh entry draws little blood with its dull knife of a script." Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.