Key Takeaways
Total 3-Day Weekend Gross:
$181,144,895 | +1.2% Last Week / +46.5% Weekend 23, 2025
It was another weekend of big year-over-year wins as two big newcomers plus horror holdovers led to great results for theaters. Scary Movie delivered a bullseye for R-rated comedy at $55M, while Masters of the Universe‘s $29.3M represented solid ticket sales despite falling short of the tentpole aspirations of the studio behind it. Backrooms and Obsession continued to deliver, despite a steeper-than-expected drop from the former and another stronger-than-anticipated hold from the latter. All this brought big gains over this frame in 2025 when Lilo & Stitch held the fort for a third straight frame.
- Top Title: Scary Movie (Paramount) | $55M / 3,490 Screens / $15,759 PSA | Week 1
- Top Opener: Scary Movie (Paramount) | $55M / 3,490 Screens / $15,759 PSA | Week 1
- Best PSA: Scary Movie (Paramount) | $55M / 3,490 Screens / $15,759 PSA | Week 1
1. Scary Movie
Paramount Pictures | NEW
$55M 3-Day Opening Weekend | $105.5M Global Total
Paramount brought Scary Movie back with a bang, with the R-rated horror spoof earning at the high end of our forecast at an estimated $55M from 3,490 screens for a $15,759 per-screen average. This marks the biggest R-rated comedy opening of the post-COVID era while besting Scary Movie 3‘s $48.1M for the best opening in the franchise.
This was a perfect storm of a long time between installments, proximity to a successful Scream 7, a savvy marketing campaign (including digs at Backrooms and Weapons), and horror being the dominant genre of 2026. Critics did not assist with 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, while audience reaction veered negatively with a “C+” CinemaScore, likely signaling a notable dip in the next frame.
Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $7.7M in Thursday previews…
- Friday – $24.8M
- Saturday – $17.6M
- Sunday – $12.6M
Audiences were 55% male/45% female, with under-30’s representing 62% of the audience. Nostalgia was strong here, with a poll showing 88% describing themselves as fans of the franchise and 90% having seen a previous Scary Movie entry. The film performed best across the South Central, West, South, and Eastern regions of the country, while premium formats represented 26% of the opening.
Here’s how demographics looked…
- 37% Hispanic
- 36% Caucasian
- 21% Black
- 6% Asian/Other
Scary Movie performed equally well overseas, with $50.5M across 53 markets, representing 95% of the international footprint. The global total is $105.5M, with the Top 3 markets being Mexico ($6.7M), the UK ($5.5M), and Germany ($5.5M).
2. Masters of the Universe
Amazon/MGM | NEW
$29.3M 3-Day Opening Weekend | $54.3M Global Total
After decades in development, Amazon/MGM’s cinematic reboot of Masters of the Universe overtook Backrooms for the #2 spot but fell short of what must have been tentpole aspirations for a budding franchise. The Mattel toy/cartoon series adaptation earned $29.3M from 3,677 screens for a $7,971 PSA. It’s a far cry from 2023’s Barbie ($162M opening), even though the filmmakers were trying to emulate that movie’s “real world/fantasy world” formula, though to be fair—that was never a comp ahead of release. It opened right at our panel’s low-end prediction, and below our comp movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ($37.2M opening).
Here’s how the 3-Day looked, including $4.4M in Thursday previews…
- Friday – $11.75M
- Saturday – $10M
- Sunday – $7.5M
MOTU is not Barbie and it never has been. The toy line and cartoon’s cultural impact only spanned a few years in the early 80’s, and by the time the 1987 movie was released the fad was already over. Other He-Man cartoons and toy lines have launched in the ensuing years, but it has always been more cult nostalgia than mainstream. The film’s PG-13 rating and meta tone is indicative of the schizophrenia towards the target demo: Is it a power fantasy for small kids or colorful nostalgia for grown-ups? Is it a “serious” adaptation or a parody? This is one of the reasons the movie tracked below blockbuster numbers all the way down the line and never achieved liftoff.
The audience was 66% male/34% female, with 45-54’s (those who grew up with He-Man) by far the largest age quad at 29%. Teens were only 6%, and <12’s (the target audience for the toys) apparently nonexistent. The kid group wound up giving the movie an 89% via PostTrak, showing a failure of marketing to recognize the movie’s primary appeal. RT critical was a meh 66%, while audience reaction was equally beige with a “B” CinemaScore. IMAX screens only provided $2.6M of the domestic total, with $4.2M from the large format globally.
Here’s how demographics looked…
- 49% White
- 25% Latino
- 15% Black
- 6% Asian
- 6% Native American/Other
Overseas Masters of the Universe made an equally anemic $25M across 86 territories, bringing the worldwide total to $54M. Compared to our choice comp, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, this is also an underperformance relative to that movie’s international opening of $33M from 60 markets. Top 3 MOTU territories were Brazil ($4.5M), the UK ($3.6M), and Mexico ($2.8M).
Other Notable Performances
A24’s Backrooms came in lower than our forecast, finishing third with $25.9M. That represents a steep -68% drop, reflecting the film’s “B-” CinemaScore, once again showing A24’s savviness in overselling specialty fare as wide mainstream releases. We’ve seen this before, with movies like Civil War or this year’s The Drama, but it could mean a rough road ahead for the property’s long-term franchise appeal. Domestic total is $135M while global is $212M, still insanely positive numbers for this title, so it is difficult to see this performance as anything but wildly positive.
It was a bigger win for Focus Features’ Obsession, though, which dropped only -7% in its fourth frame to rake in another $25.6M for a $152.1M domestic haul at #4. In terms of Blumhouse movies domestically, Obsession has now shot past all Paranormal Activity installments, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Split and Glass, and will soon overtake Halloween‘s $159.3M. Obsession could surpass Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu at the domestic box office as early as next week—a sentence nobody in the industry would have taken seriously when the film first opened.
Checking the blockbuster tentpole pulse, it is now safe to call Disney’s Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu a misfire with only $155.8M domestic after three weekends. Mando is currently pacing around $20M behind the franchise’s previous loser Solo: A Star Wars Story. Globally, the movie is currently at $293.6M, quite far from Solo‘s $393.15M global theatrical run. Despite goodwill from the Disney+ series, audiences just were not feeling this one.
Chalk up another win for the YouTube generation as The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act -the concluding episodes of a popular web animation- broke into the Top 5 with $12.39M from 2,221 screens for a $5,579 PSA. The Gooseworx-directed film has totaled $20.7M if you include $8.3M earned Thursday.
In its 9th weekend Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie became the first film of the calendar year to cross the big $1B mark globally, with $428.5M domestically. After only two films and $2.3B collectively, Super Mario is now the 9th biggest animated franchise in the world. A third film is currently targeted for 2029, with rumored Donkey Kong and Luigi’s Mansion spin-offs as well.
Next Weekend
For the first time in over two decades, director Steven Spielberg is delivering a big original summer alien movie with Universal’s Disclosure Day, starring Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor as folks on the run from a nefarious organization bent on preventing the release of very sensitive info to the public. Early reactions out of screenings and premieres have leaned positive, while the ad campaign is putting most of its chips on the Spielberg name… even though the master has not enjoyed a tentpoled hit since Ready Player One eight years ago. War of the Worlds opened to $64.87M in 2005, but current tracking has Disclosure Day opening in the $40M range.
Sunday Studio Estimates | Weekend 23 – 2026
Total 3-Day Domestic Gross: $181,144,895 | (+46.5% vs 2025)
| Title | Weekend Est. | Screens | PSA | Total | Week | Distributor |
| Scary Movie | $55,000,000 | 3490 | $15,759 | $55,000,000 | 1 | Paramount |
| Masters of the Universe | $29,308,000 | 3677 | $7,971 | $29,308,000 | 1 |
Amazon MGM
|
| Backrooms | $25,942,933 | 3565 | $7,277 | $135,057,858 | 2 | A24 |
| Obsession | $25,600,000 | 2900 | $8,828 | $152,132,000 | 4 | Focus |
| The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act | $12,702,792 | 2221 | $5,719 | $21,079,370 | 1 |
Fathom
|
| Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu | $10,000,000 | 3355 | $2,981 | $155,822,349 | 3 | Disney |
| Michael | $7,700,000 | 2636 | $2,921 | $354,281,000 | 7 | Lionsgate |
| The Breadwinner | $3,400,000 | 3252 | $1,046 | $13,838,000 | 2 | Sony |
| Pressure | $3,000,000 | 1855 | $1,617 | $11,153,000 | 2 | Focus |
| The Devil Wears Prada 2 | $2,800,000 | 1800 | $1,556 | $214,970,934 | 6 |
20th Century Studios
|
| The Sheep Detectives | $2,213,717 | 1757 | $1,260 | $59,392,000 | 5 |
Amazon MGM
|
| Power Ballad | $1,315,000 | 1275 | $1,031 | $1,541,000 | 2 | Lionsgate |
| Peddi | $1,059,357 | 755 | $1,403 | $2,990,990 | 1 |
Prathyangira
|
| Tuner | $650,000 | 504 | $1,290 | $3,114,048 | 3 | Black Bear |
| Passenger | $630,000 | 625 | $1,008 | $17,431,000 | 3 | Paramount |
| The Super Mario Galaxy Movie | $600,000 | 642 | $935 | $428,528,000 | 10 | Universal |
| I Love Boosters | $502,600 | 300 | $1,675 | $8,657,728 | 3 | Neon Rated |
| Mortal Kombat II | $455,000 | 478 | $952 | $79,084,000 | 5 | Warner Bros. |
| Trainspotting (Re-Release) | $270,783 | 374 | $724 | $270,783 | 1 |
Sony Pictures Classics
|
| Hokum | $59,200 | 48 | $1,233 | $16,956,148 | 6 | Neon Rated |
| Time and Water | $10,764 | 7 | $1,538 | $20,407 | 2 | 1-2 Special |
| Jinsei | $9,250 | 1 | $9,250 | $9,250 | 1 |
Greenwich Entertainment
|
| Underland | $7,256 | 1 | $7,256 | $7,256 | 1 |
Oscilloscope
|
| Deep Water | $2,837 | 5 | $567 | $4,331,270 | 6 |
Magenta Light Studios
|
| The Python Hunt | $1,354 | 6 | $226 | $57,099 | 5 |
Oscilloscope
|
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