Scary Movie is off to a great start at the box office following a successful opening weekend. Unfortunately, there is a key lesson from the movie that Hollywood continues to struggle with.
After 26 years, audiences still love Scary Movie. The sixth movie in the parody franchise opened to $55 million at the domestic box office. It’s a new opening weekend record for the film series, passing Scary Movie 3’s $49 million haul in 2003.
Scary Movie marked the return of the Wayans Brothers, who had not been involved in the franchise since Scary Movie 2.
What did Scary Movie get right that so many Hollywood franchises struggle with?
Scary Movie has never been a franchise that relies on critical acclaim. In fact, none of the six movies have Tomatometer scores north of 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. The majority of comedies typically don’t receive high praise from critics, so Scary Movie getting a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes is not a surprise.
The Wayans Brothers clearly know what the Scary Movie audience wants. They want to see some of their favorite characters, like Cindy and Brenda, getting into ridiculous situations, followed by silly and sometimes juvenile jokes. The movies don’t stray too far from this template, and the box office results are tough to argue with. The formula works because the audience keeps showing up for these movies.
Knowing when to listen to the audience is one of the hardest concepts for Hollywood to perfect. Scary Movie completely understands its audience and knows that critical reception is far less important, especially in a parody movie.
Other franchises have run into trouble when they take audience feedback too seriously. Look at what happened to Star Wars after the polarizing reaction to The Last Jedi. Lucasfilm panicked and retconned most of The Last Jedi in The Rise of Skywalker. Though it grossed over $1 billion, The Rise of Skywalker was rejected by most audiences and forced Disney to go back to the drawing board for its Star Wars movies.
There is no official formula for when to trust audiences over critics. For now, Scary Movie has found what works for them.
