‘Scream 7’ Kills With $28.8 Million on Opening Day

“Scream 7” easily slashed its way to the top of the Friday box office, knocking off last week’s champion, “Wuthering Heights.”

The seventh installment in the long-running slasher franchise grossed $28.8 million on Friday from 3,540 North American locations. Paramount and Spyglass are hoping for $60 million through opening weekend, which would mark the best debut in series history.

“Scream 7” sees the return of Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, who relocates to the small town of Pine Grove for a quiet life with her daughter, only to have Ghostface try to burn it all down. Campbell stars alongside fellow original cast members Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Matthew Lillard, as well as Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Joel McHale and Mckenna Grace.

While Paramount is poised for a major payday, it wasn’t easy getting “Scream 7” off the ground. Preproduction was plagued by a myriad of major setbacks, including the exit of stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega and a major shakeup on the creative team, which saw original “Scream” writer Kevin Williamson take the directing reins from Christopher Landon. On top of all that, Paramount and Spyglass had to shell out $7 million for Campbell’s return after a pay dispute caused her to bow out of “Scream 6.”

Sony’s “GOAT” landed at No. 2 on Friday with $2.6 million domestically. The animated family film about professional animal athletes should score $11.7 million by Sunday. Through three weekends of release, “GOAT” should reach a North American total of $73 million.

Third place went to Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights,” which earned an estimated $2.2 million on its third Friday in North American theaters. The steamy literary adaptation should make $7 million by Sunday for a domestic total of $72 million.

Fourth place went to “Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined,” which grossed $2.1 million on Friday from just 770 North American theaters, according to rival estimates. The concert film, which captures the group’s Mexico City show in front of a crowd of 65,000 fans, should hit $3.5 million by Sunday.

In a distant fifth was “Crime 101,” which heisted just $920,107 domestically on Friday. Amazon MGM is hoping for $3.34 million by Sunday, which would bring the film’s domestic total to $29.9 million.