'Anti-woke' Scary Movie 6 opens to $56 million as critics clutch pearls
Paramount and Miramax’s Scary Movie 6 opened to $56 million domestic and $107 million global, the best opening in the 26-year history of the franchise and the biggest Paramount comedy opening ever.
The Wayans brothers brought Scary Movie back, the critics hated it, and the audience showed up anyway.
Scary Movie 6 opened to a franchise-record $56 million domestic this weekend, with $50.5 million international from 53 markets, for a global opening of $107 million per Deadline and World of Reel. The film is the latest entry in the Paramount and Miramax parody franchise that started in 2000, directed this time by Michael Tiddes and co-written and starring Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans.
The opening beat the previous franchise record holder, Scary Movie 3 ($49.7 million in 2003), and outpaced the entire global run of comparable 2026 horror releases like 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple ($58.5 million worldwide) in just three days.
The franchise records
The $56 million domestic opening is the best Paramount comedy opening ever, surpassing Jackass 3D‘s $50.3 million bow from 2010.
The $107 million global opening is also the best in the entire Scary Movie franchise, exceeding even Scream 7‘s $97 million global opening from earlier in 2026.
Internationally, Scary Movie 6 topped the box office in Mexico ($6.7M), the UK ($5.5M), and Brazil ($5.1M). The Brazil result was the biggest Paramount opening ever in that territory across all films, with Colombia and Bolivia also recording all-time Paramount opening records. The international result was 75 percent higher than the original 2000 Scary Movie‘s foreign debut.
For franchise context, the most recent entry, Scary Movie 5 (2013), opened to just $14 million.
The reviews are bad. The audience does not care.
Scary Movie 6 opened at 26 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with critics and earned a C+ CinemaScore from audiences. Both numbers are weak for a wide release tentpole.
Both numbers also did nothing to slow the box office.
The CinemaScore C+ technically beat Masters of the Universe‘s B from audiences this weekend, but MOTU still earned a stronger 67 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score and 87 percent audience score. The audience numbers tell a coherent story across both films. The audience showing up to Scary Movie 6 is the audience that came for the brand and the cast. The audience giving He-Man an 87 percent score is the audience reliving childhood without bringing their kids.
The critics savaged Scary Movie 6 mostly on three fronts.
The Wrap’s Bilge Ebiri wrote that the film “doesn’t punch down so much as it punches indiscriminately“ and singled out a mob scene featuring a beating death of a non-villain character as the film’s hardest pivot from comedy into discomfort.
Most other critics objected to the rapid pace at which the film moves between targets, often without setup, and the willingness to mock identity politics from multiple directions including LGBTQ characters, racial minorities, white liberals, and the right wing.
The Mary Sue and Collider both ran articles calling the film’s humor anti-woke. Hollywood in Toto and The Federalist ran framings calling it a refreshing return to “equal opportunity” comedy. Both framings are reading the same film through different lenses.
Marlon Wayans’s take
In press interviews with Entertainment Weekly and Fox News, Marlon Wayans repeatedly described the film’s comedic approach using a specific phrase. The Wayans brothers, he said, are “equal opportunity offenders.”
His full framing to EW: “We don’t pick a side. We make fun of everybody. We always have. The audience knows that. You can’t be in this game for 26 years and not have made fun of everybody at least once.“
That framing is the heart of why the audience showed up despite the reviews. The audience that bought tickets for the original Scary Movie in 2000 is now in their forties and fifties. They came for the brand. The 17 to 34 demographic that drives most horror box office showed up because the Wayans cast was famous on TikTok and Marlon’s 23.3 million social followers did meaningful marketing work for the opening.
The film’s targets in Scary Movie 6 per published reviews include: the Scream franchise (as always), Get Out, Weapons, Smile, M3GAN, 2018’s Halloween, The Substance, and various social-justice-coded character types from the past five years of horror filmmaking. The same review accusations of “punching down” arrived in 2000 for the original Scary Movie and in 2003 for Scary Movie 3. The franchise has never been critic-friendly.
The audience-tired-of-eggshells thesis
The broader cultural read on Scary Movie 6‘s opening is that audiences are visibly tired of being told what to laugh at. The 26 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score and the C+ CinemaScore both suggest a film that critics found genuinely uncomfortable. The $56 million opening suggests an audience that bought tickets specifically because the critics found it uncomfortable.
Whether that holds is a question for the second weekend. Comedies tend to drop hard once the opening-weekend wave passes. The C+ CinemaScore is not the kind of score that sustains. World of Reel explicitly flagged the possibility of a major sophomore drop based on “toxic word of mouth“ suggested by the CinemaScore.
The film cost $30 million to produce. Break-even is roughly $75 million worldwide. Opening weekend cleared that by 43 percent. Whatever happens in week two, Scary Movie 6 is already profitable.
The Wayans now reportedly have the leverage to greenlight their long-rumored White Chicks 2 project, per World of Reel’s reporting on the conversations happening at Paramount this week.
The closer
The $56 million opening is the number that matters. The 26 percent critics score is what gets written about. The C+ CinemaScore predicts what happens next. The audience that wanted to laugh without checking the eggshell-status of every joke just made Scary Movie 6 the biggest comedy opening in Paramount’s history.
The Wayans, the critics, and the audience all got what they came for.
White Chicks 2 might actually happen now.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming, tech, and pop culture, visit clownfishtv.com. Watch the show on YouTube at @ClownfishTV where new episodes drop daily. Subscribe to the Clownfish TV podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for the free newsletter at more.clownfishtv.com.
Hat Tips:
Deadline (June 7, 2026), primary verified opening weekend reporting including the $56 million domestic, $50.5 million international from 53 markets, $107 million global, the franchise record context against the previous Scary Movie 3 ($49.7M) holder, and the best Paramount comedy opening ever record against Jackass 3D ($50.3M)
World of Reel (June 7, 2026), verified $107 million global total, the C+ CinemaScore context, and the World of Reel “toxic word of mouth” sophomore drop framing including the White Chicks 2 greenlight context
ScreenRant (June 7, 2026), verified 26 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score, the franchise record context, and the comparison data including the $14 million Scary Movie 5 opening in 2013
Variety (June 6, 2026), verified $24.7 million opening Friday and the weekend competitive context against Masters of the Universe ($29M), Backrooms (down 68% in second weekend), and Obsession ($7.4M domestic Friday in fourth weekend)
ComingSoon (June 7, 2026), verified Mexico ($6.7M), UK ($5.5M), and Brazil ($5.1M) international openings, plus the Brazil all-time Paramount opening record and Colombia and Bolivia all-time Paramount opening records
Cosmic Book News (June 6, 2026), verified Marlon Wayans 23.3M social followers, Regina Hall 6.7M, Anna Faris 5.3M, Anthony Anderson 4.4M social tracking context
The Wrap / Bilge Ebiri (June 6, 2026), verified “doesn’t punch down so much as it punches indiscriminately” critical framing including the mob scene critique
Entertainment Weekly / Fox News (June 2026), verified Marlon Wayans “equal opportunity offenders” framing and the “We don’t pick a side” quote
The Mary Sue / Collider / Hollywood in Toto / The Federalist (June 5-7, 2026), verified dual-audience critical and cultural framings across the political spectrum
CBR (June 5, 2026), verified $7.7 million previews and pre-opening tracking context
Box Office Mojo, verified Scream 7 $97 million global opening record context and the historical Scary Movie franchise opening weekend numbers
Wikipedia / Scary Movie franchise, verified 2000 original Scary Movie release, 26-year franchise history, and director Michael Tiddes credit