NFL
By: Rick O’Donnell
Much like the Poltergeist, they’re back! Our Horror favorites continue into 2025 with the next installment of the Scream franchise. Master of Horror, Wes Craven, started a whole new franchise in 1995 after the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Scream would be released in 1996 and go on to be yet another huge horror franchise for Craven.
The original film, written by Kevin Williamson, would make many of the stars household names, those that weren’t already. Scream has, as of right now, released six box office movies and three seasons of a television show on MTV. A seventh film in the franchise is on the way, and is said to have wrapped production in March of 2025 for its February 2026 release date. The film would even go on to have its own comedy spoof by the Wayans Brothers, Scary Movie, which would also go on to be a hit franchise.
Scream is an American slasher franchise that includes six films (and a seventh in active development), a television series, merchandise, and games.[1][2] The first four films were directed by Wes Craven. The series was created by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two films and the fourth, and will return to direct the seventh film. Ehren Kruger wrote the third. The fifth and sixth installments were directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, with Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt serving as writers and Williamson returning as executive producer. Dimension Films produced the first four films. Spyglass Media Group took over the rights from the fifth film on, with Paramount Pictures distributing. The film series has grossed over US$910million at the global box office.
Starring the likes of Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette, the original Scream would become a classic staple in the horror genre. Some would say it was the revival of the slasher films that became stale with rehashes of Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween, having hit their peak and eventual downfall. It was a new take on the genre that needed a refresh.
Initially, the appeal was pulled right out from under the viewers as one of the most classic switch-ups in movie history. The original trailer heavily implied it was a movie starring a younger Drew Barrymore who would go on to be the first murder of the movie by the killer now known as Ghostface, and a franchise was born.
Scream, as a franchise, would go on to make ~$910 million at the box office through all six films to date. As with most horror films, they’ve kept the budgets low, totaling approximately $176 million in production costs, and only one movie (Scream 4) would fail to make its money back at the domestic box office. No movie was a flop worldwide.
With classic quotes, pop culture references that have lasted years, and multiple parodies throughout the years, Scream has become one of the most popular horror franchises and has held its place with the heavyweights on the horror scene. So which one is your favorite?
