‘Scream’ Passes ‘Scream 4’ In Just One Week

Scream once again topped the daily box office on Thursday with $1.4 million, a drop of 5% from its $1.55 million Wednesday gross. This means that Scream (aka Scream 5) has passed the unadjusted $38.18 million domestic cume of Scream 4 in just a week. It should pass Scream 4’s inflation-adjusted $44 million cume on Friday or Saturday. We have discussed the reasons for the surprise over performance, including good reviews, a lack of demographically specific tentpoles, the durability of franchise horror all throughout the pandemic, and the generational nostalgia for Scream 4 which turned this one into a “breakout sequel” to the last failed installment. It’s also a relative win for diversity. Don’t worry, I’m not going to yell at folks for not showing up to what they claim to want. Because, this time, they kind of did. 

The film’s new protagonist is played by In the Heights’ Melissa Barrera, with her younger sister played by Jenna Ortega. The little sister’s peer group, from whom most of the main characters derive, is played by Jasmin Savoy Brown (as the film’s resident film nerd/audience surrogate who happens to be queer), Mason Gooding (Cuba Gooding Jr.’s son), Sonia Ben Ammar, Mickey Madison and Dylan Minette. I’m not going to do an ethnicity scorecard, but most of these folks are not white. Scream calls little attention to this, even (unless I missed it) neglecting a self-referential joke amid conversations about legacy sequel tropes. There were media articles discussing this or that representational milestone, but the core marketing campaign sold it as the latest Scream movie. In this context, it matters that Scream opened with $33.8 million over the MLK weekend. 

It’s a refreshing example of a “diverse just for the hell of it” theatrical release excelling on opening weekend. The grim truth is that while diversity is an added value element, and never a hindrance, it’s mostly of value when it’s within something (a Star Wars movie, a Marvel movie, etc.) which audiences already want to see. We’ll flock to Black Panther (partially because it’s an MCU movie) while ignoring Pacific Rim: Uprising starring John Boyega in the kind of role usually reserved for Charlie Hunnam. We’ll pay attention to Cynthia Erivo’s Harriet but not Erivo headlining, sans demographic requirement, Bad Time at the El Royale. At least in terms of theatrical potential, we’ve regressed from when Anaconda, a surprise hit in early 1997, starred Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube as its heroes “just because.”  

There is obvious value in diverse films which tell ethnically specific stories like David Oyelowo’s Selma that require inclusive casting. However, there is also as much value, if not more, in studio programmers like David Oyelowo’s Gringo that just happen to have non-white (and/or non-male) actors in roles usually reserved for the likes of Ryan Reynolds or Jennifer Lawrence. There’s no explicit reason the new heroes, victims and villains in this latest Woodsboro murder spree must be demographically diverse. Moreover, the relative success of Scream again shows that diversity isn’t a hindrance for a film which audiences already want to see. That frankly was supposed to be the endgame. Casting Lily Gladstone as Tiger Lily wouldn’t have made Pan a hit, but the commercial excuse which “justified” casting Rooney Mara was always investor-driven nonsense.  

Scream also helps debunk the “Go woke, go broke!” narrative that has been perpetuated online by insincere pundits arguing that films like Ghostbusters, Terminator: Dark Fate, Birds of Prey or Charlie’s Angels failed commercially specifically because they were comparatively inclusive. Abridged version: Diversity can’t get audiences excited for a movie they otherwise don’t care about. However, and this is key, it has never, ever been shown to be a detractive element for an otherwise commercial enterprise. Sure, some folks may have avoided Captain Marvel because “girls… cooties,” but $1.128 billion in global grosses argues that those folks were statistically irrelevant. Sure, there are audiences who didn’t like that Mad Max: Fury Road was a Tom Hardy/Charlize Theron two-hander, but $153 million domestic says they don’t matter unless the media places them at the front of the debate stage.  

It also gives (false?) hope for Steven Caple Jr.’s Transformers: Rise of the Beast (starring Anthony Ramos and Dominique Fishback), Michael B. Jordan’s “Black Superman” flick and other upcoming “But we’re diverse now!” franchise relaunches. Can those revivals, arguably using inclusivity as an alibi for reviving past-their-prime IP, avoid the grim fate of Snake Eyes? Even if Scream collapses (earlier Scream sequels dropped 53-62% in weekend two), the strong opening shows that the fan base approved of the cast’s demographic diversity or didn’t let that dissuade them from attending. That doesn’t mean a new James Bond film starring The Green Knight’s Dev Patel would be a bigger hit than one starring, say, The Witcher’s Henry Cavill. But what this all means is that it won’t make any less money and thus studios no longer have that excuse.