SCREAM 7 | EPiC: ELVIS PRESLEY IN CONCERT openings | Where we are now and Hoppers next weekend | February 27 to March 1, 2026 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary.
The current weekend: February 27 to March 1, 2026
1) Scream 7 opening
- This is a record-breaking opening at this stage of a horror series. Even the Alien films, with their blend of science fiction, creatures and horror, did not open this well at this point in their series (the 7th Alien movie opened to $51 million in June 2012).
For pure horror, the next best openings are Saw 3D ($22.5 million in Oct 2010), Texas Chainsaw 3D ($21.7m in Jan 2013), and Annabelle Comes Home ($20.3m in June 2019; it’s #7 of the Conjuring/Annabelle/Nun series). This weekend’s figure is around three-times those pictures’ starts.
Critics’ reviews are weak and the audience score is neutral (a B- CinemaScore), but this audience knows these characters and story and that’s what they want to see. On a reasonable budget of $45 million, this is sensational business:
- Scream was among the first horror pics to make fun of its own cliches. Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II did it earlier in 1987, and later, the Scary Movie films hit big with pure parody.
(For instance, in Scream, Ghostface advises its victim, “Never say ‘who’s there?’,“ and the victim requests, “Please don’t kill me, Mr. Ghostface, I wanna be in the sequel!” — meta-humor like that.)
The series started in 1996 and was originally produced by Dimension Films, the genre label of the Miramax company. Paramount stepped in when it bought 49% of Miramax in 2020.
Horror films in 2025
- With final numbers in now, 2025 was a big year for horror moviegoing. 2017 was bigger in total BO, but 2017 was elevated by one particular smash: Stephen King’s It ($700 million worldwide).
As noted, the number of horror titles has jumped over the last two years, with more low budget productions getting a wide release — you can see it below.
For the young horror audience, sitting with friends in a packed dark room and being jolted by the big, loud scares remains a strong draw. And for the industry, the films are inexpensive to make and they develop a lot of outstanding young talent:
- On another weekend, we’ll look at the 2026 horror lineup. In a business that relies on big franchise series, it was the original stories that elevated the genre in 2025, including…
Sinners with $369m worldwide on a budget of $90m; Weapons at $270m on a budget of $38m; and The Monkey for $69m on a budget of $11m. Great original storytelling, and it connected at the box office.
2) EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert opening
