The slasher series becomes the first in its genre to reach the landmark figure, and only the sixth horror franchise in history to do so.
LOS ANGELES — The knife-wielding specter of Ghostface has finally carved its way into the billion-dollar club. With the release of Scream 7, the long-running horror franchise has surpassed $1 billion in cumulative global box office earnings — becoming the first slasher film series in cinema history to achieve the landmark, and only the sixth horror franchise overall to do so.
The milestone, confirmed by multiple box office tracking sources including Gold Derby and Wikipedia’s 2026 in film overview, marks a remarkable commercial trajectory for a franchise that began with Wes Craven’s 1996 original — itself considered one of the most influential horror films ever made for its self-referential deconstruction of genre conventions.
Scream 7 crossed the $100 million domestic threshold on March 13, becoming the first film of 2026 to reach that benchmark in just 15 days of release. Its domestic total has since climbed to approximately $121.8 million, with a worldwide gross exceeding $213 million, pushing the franchise’s cumulative earnings over the billion-dollar line when added to the previous six installments.
The achievement places Scream in rarefied company within horror cinema. The five other horror franchises that had previously crossed the $1 billion mark represent some of the genre’s most enduring brands, spanning everything from supernatural horror to monster movies. That a slasher franchise — a subgenre often dismissed by mainstream critics as gratuitous — has become the first in its category to reach this level speaks to the remarkable longevity and cultural staying power of the Ghostface character and the self-aware storytelling framework that Craven established.
For Paramount Pictures, which distributes the franchise, the milestone arrives at a moment when the studio is navigating a competitive landscape with renewed confidence. The Scream series has proven especially resilient in the streaming era, with each theatrical release driving significant downstream consumption across digital platforms.
The Radio Silence directing duo — Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett — who took over the franchise from Craven’s legacy and revived it for a new generation beginning with 2022’s Scream, have spoken about their deep respect for the source material and their commitment to balancing fan service with genuine creative evolution. Scream 7’s box office performance suggests that audiences remain enthusiastically engaged with that balance.
