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It's a great time to be a slasher movie fan. It's an even better time to love the Scream and Halloween franchises as there are new films being released in 2022 and 2023. Both franchises have great foundations and it seems like an endless amount of movies can be made. There's no reason to think that either one will stop anytime soon, especially with fan demand so high.
Both Scream (2022) and Halloween Kills were successful movies with interesting characters, exciting moments, and the fun vibe and tone that audiences look forward to. Both films did well at the box office, both worldwide and domestically, but which movie was the highest-grossing?
Laurie Strode and Sidney Prescott are the best final girls, and it's been fascinating watching the two characters as adults. Jamie Lee Curtis and Neve Campbell both returned for the latest films in their franchises and Scream and Halloween show the final girl aftermath. So which movie made more money at the box office, Halloween Kills or Scream (2022)?
When comparing the financial success of the two popular slasher films, Scream (2022) made slightly more money. According to Box Office Mojo, the worldwide gross for Halloween Kills was $131,647,155. The international box office gross was $39,645,000 and the domestic was $92,002,155. Also according to Box Office Mojo, Scream (2022) grossed $140,041,405 worldwide. The international gross was $58,400,000 and the domestic was $81,641,405. It's interesting to note that Halloween Kills made more domestically than Scream (2022).
While neither movie is perfect, both are great additions to popular slasher franchises. Scream (2022) does a particularly smart job of incorporating the original trio of Sidney, Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette) with newer characters. Siblings Tara (Jenna Ortega) and Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera) have smart personalities and their desire to be close again after years of estrangement powers the movie in an interesting way. Halloween Kills also shows that Laurie can never really get far from Michael Myers and that her entire legacy will be about going after him.
The fact that both movies did so well at the box office proves the appetite that horror fans have for these franchises. Fans like watching the original Halloween and Scream films from 1978 and 1996 as much as they did the first time that they ever saw them, which is definitely a big deal given how many movies are released all the time. There's something about these stories that endure, and the franchises have a lot in common, from smart and well-written characters to villains who really do feel scary and hard to get away from.
There are several horror franchises that do a great job of keeping fans interested with each film, and the Evil Dead franchise deserves praise on that front. Both Scream (2022) and Halloween Kills feel unique because they integrate what fans want with what makes sense for the story to move forward. Of course, fans wanted to see their favorite characters come back, and that's what happened. Fans were also curious to see these movies breathe new life into the classic story of a final girl vs. a villain and that took place as well. Scream (2022) succeeded in honoring the old, showing Tara getting a call from Ghostface in her kitchen. Halloween Kills wasted Laurie and didn't allow her to kick butt in enough scenes, but ultimately, the movie still succeeds in showing what Laurie is like at this age and how she is doing.
Before Halloween Kills was released, Jason Blum told Den Of Geek, “I just saw Halloween Kills. It was SO good. So good. It’s intense. It’s huge. It really feels really big." Halloween Kills had a fascinating release as it was in theaters and also streaming on Peacock. Jason Blum told Collider in an interview that because Freaky wasn't seen by many people, he knew that he wanted the second Halloween film to have a better strategy.
Blum explained, "It was my idea to do it. [Peacock] didn't approach me. I approached them. I, like everyone else, am a big believer in the theatrical experience. I think eventually I think there should be windows. I think Universal's strategy of the three-week window is a great strategy, but I had a bad distribution experience with Freaky. That movie is a great movie, and it didn't get seen because the distribution of it got all twisted up. My fault."
Scream 6 will have a NYC setting and there has been a lot of news about the film recently, from Dermot Mulroney being cast to Neve Campbell deciding not to come back. When Halloween Ends is released in October 2022 and Scream 6 comes out in March 2023, it's fair to say that both will make a killing at the box office (no pun intended).