“Scream 7” isn’t just earning the best opening weekend ever for the Spyglass horror franchise. It is also standing among the best opening weekends for Paramount over the past few years.

After earning $29 million on Saturday, the $45 million co-production has earned an estimated $64.1 million domestic opening from 3,580 locations. That tops the $60.1 million opening for “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” in December 2024 and matches the $64 million 3-day opening of “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” last May. Globally, the film has earned a $97.2 million launch, also a franchise record.

There’s a good chance that “Scream 7” will be more frontloaded than those films given that it has not been received as well as the previous two films in the series, which earned a B+ on CinemaScore upon their release in 2022 and 2023. By comparison, “Scream 7” has earned a B- on CinemaScore to go with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 34% critics and 78% audience.

But even with a sharp second weekend drop, “Scream 7” will be a theatrical success for Paramount, which was revived by former studio CEO Brian Robbins and developed by Spyglass under its chief and co-founder Gary Barber. With Paramount now under the ownership of David Ellison and Skydance, “Scream” stands to be a continued player in its franchise stable as it plots a new direction.

That is in spite of the firing of “Scream 5” and “Scream VI” lead Melissa Barrera over pro-Palestine comments on social media and the subsequent departure of co-star Jenna Ortega. Neve Campbell, who starred in the first four “Scream” films and was introduced to a new generation when the series was brought back, sat out of “Scream VI” over pay issues but returns in this latest installment, which is more closely connected to Wes Craven’s original 1996 film.

Though audiences under 35 are too young to have seen that first installment when it was first released, 66% of the film’s opening weekend audience came from that demo, showing how well “Scream” has made the generation leap from Gen X to Gen Z.

In second this weekend is Sony Pictures Animation’s “Goat” with $12 million in its third weekend to bring its domestic total to just shy of $74 million. While the family title will get some major competition from another original animated title next weekend with Pixar’s “Hoppers,” it remains on track to reach $100 million in domestic grosses.

More to come…