Scary Movie hits $56M opening while Masters of the Universe faces a $30M flop

Scary Movie is sprinting past the competition this weekend, with an estimated $56 million opening weekend, including $24.7 million from 3,490 locations on Friday. That performance is the immediate headline because it puts the Wayans Brothers horror spoof revival from Paramount/Miramax ahead of Amazon MGM's Masters of the Universe, which is shaping up for a much weaker estimated $30 million opening from 3,677 locations.

The big story for decision-makers is not just that Scary Movie is winning. It is that a tentpole with a reported budget of at least $170 million is heading for something closer to an expensive shrug than a seasonal event. TheWrap frames Masters of the Universe as likely to be one of, if not the biggest flops of the summer, even as Scary Movie posts a relatively strong Rotten Tomatoes audience score and a CinemaScore that signals the market is still buying the movie even if it is not loving it.

Zoom out and you get the kind of summer box office pressure that boards and investors actually worry about: budgets are high, audience behavior is fragmented, and word-of-mouth can get crowded out. Scary Movie is the sixth installment in a series that began back in 2000, and TheWrap notes it is earning the highest opening weekend for the franchise before inflation adjustment. The prior benchmark was Scary Movie 3 in 2003, which opened with $49.7 million. In other words, even with the modern reality of shorter theatrical windows and more viewing options, this franchise can still light up on opening weekend.

The audience math matters here. Scary Movie was expected to pull in millennials nostalgic for the series, while also aiming at Gen Z with parodies of recent horror hits like Smile and Sinners. The opening suggests the nostalgia and meme-lens approach is working at least in the first wave. Still, reception is mixed in a way executives should read carefully. TheWrap reports Scary Movie has earned a 71% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, but a C+ on CinemaScore. That is not a disaster, but it is not a “this will snowball into a massive run” signal either.

There is also a meaningful historical comparison. The first two Scary Movie films, directed by Damon and Marlon Wayans, earned CinemaScore grades of B and B-, respectively. Meanwhile, Paramount's 2025 revival of The Naked Gun, starring Liam Neeson and directed by Akiva Schaeffer, got an A-. For Scary Movie, the CinemaScore nuance is telling: the film is frontloaded, which can still be financially fine for a mid-budget theatrical hit, but it can also mean the ride is shorter and more dependent on early demand.

And the budget story explains why. TheWrap says Scary Movie carries a reported $30 million production budget financed entirely by Miramax. That matters because a lower production base changes how the opening weekend is translated into profitability and risk. On the other side, Masters of the Universe has a reported budget of at least $170 million, and it is aiming at a recovery that may not be there. TheWrap reports it is expected to bring back nostalgic Gen X men to theaters, but that it needs to “find a wider audience” to recoup its production spend.

Reception and audience signals are where this looks especially precarious. TheWrap says Masters of the Universe has better reception than Scary Movie, but not the “sterling reception” that typically predicts a box office comeback. Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores are reported as 66% and 88%, respectively. CinemaScore is the key soft spot: it is below the A- of both The Mandalorian and Grogu and director Travis Knight's 2018 Transformers spinoff Bumblebee. In plain terms, it is getting some positive signals, but not the kind that usually powers a long run.

Finally, there is the competitive field and its implications for second-order outcomes. TheWrap notes that under-30 crowds are being pulled by Scary Movie and other titles in the top 5. It also says Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day is likely to attract older sci-fi fans. That setup matters because it reduces the chance that audiences will broaden and refresh the customer base through word-of-mouth. If the film audience gets segmented by age and taste, then even a decent movie can end up trapped in the wrong lane for the rest of the weekend. The strategic stake for peers is simple: summer success increasingly depends on matching not just a release date, but the exact audience cohort and the speed at which early demand can carry a release, especially when production budgets are large enough that “meh” reception is still expensive.