The sixth installment of the horror parody franchise, reuniting Shawn and Marlon Wayans, topped worldwide charts in its opening weekend with over $100 million globally.
The ‘Scary Movie’ franchise has roared back to life at the box office, with the sixth installment — simply titled ‘Scary Movie’ — leading the global charts in its opening frame with over $100 million worldwide and topping the UK-Ireland box office simultaneously.
The film reunites Shawn and Marlon Wayans, who were central to the original 2000 parody that launched the franchise, alongside producer Neal H. Moritz. The trio’s return to the series after two decades represents one of the more unexpected creative reunions in recent Hollywood history. Keenen Ivory Wayans, the eldest of the brothers and director of the original, co-wrote the new installment alongside Marlon, Shawn, and Rick Alvarez — who collaborated with the brothers as far back as ‘Scary Movie 2’ in 2001.
The film’s commercial performance marks a clear rebuke to critics who questioned whether the franchise retained cultural relevance a quarter-century after its debut. Horror parody, as a genre, fell out of fashion for much of the 2010s, and the later ‘Scary Movie’ entries — produced without the Wayans’ involvement — were widely regarded as diminishing returns. This new chapter, by contrast, appears to have benefited enormously from the return of its original creative voices.
The UK-Ireland result is particularly striking: Screen International reports ‘Scary Movie’ topped that market’s chart while holding off strong competition from A24’s ‘Backrooms’ — itself a record-setter for original horror — and Sony’s ‘Masters of the Universe,’ suggesting an audience appetite for broad genre entertainment that crosses both critical and demographic divides.
The film’s success arrives in the context of a year that has been genuinely remarkable for the horror and genre space more broadly. From ‘Scream 7’ posting a franchise high of $214 million to ‘Backrooms’ setting records in more than ten international markets, 2026 has firmly re-established the multiplex as a home for commercially potent fright fare.
For Marlon and Shawn Wayans specifically, the opening represents a vindication of their decision to return to the IP on their own terms. In multiple press appearances ahead of the release, both brothers emphasized that they would only come back if they could do so with creative control and with a script they genuinely believed in — a standard they clearly felt the finished film met.
While Screen International noted that the review from Screen’s own critic described the film as a ‘dull, dated’ installment, audience scores have been strong, reflecting the longstanding gap between critical and popular reception that has defined the franchise from its very beginning. For the Wayans, it appears, the box office numbers tell the only story that matters.
