‘Scary Movie’ crushed Masters of the Universe with a $55M weekend

A “low-budget” horror comedy just ran circles around a nearly $200 million action spectacle. Miramax’s slasher spoof “Scary Movie” topped ticket sales with $55 million over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, easily besting Amazon MGM’s “Masters of the Universe,” which came in at $29.3 million domestically.

This wasn’t a fluke of one screen or one niche. “Scary Movie” is the sixth entry in a franchise that also just landed a franchise-best $105.5 million global launch. It also arrived as horror and Gen Z viewing habits have been pulling the market toward indie hits, with “Obsession” and “Backrooms” also attracting ticket buyers who appear to be skipping the traditional big-studio comfort blanket.

Here’s the market picture behind the numbers. The summer box office is booming, but not because the biggest brands are steamrolling the weekend. After three weeks of indie horror dominance, the genre has been pulling attention hard. “Obsession” and “Backrooms” have seen traction because both were made by YouTubers-turned-filmmakers, and that matters in a way execs understand instantly: the audience that shows up for these projects is built by distribution, not just by marketing budgets. The same weekend also saw those horror titles outshine Disney’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” underscoring that the draw is not automatically “brand equity plus screen time.”

And this weekend, comedy had its own comeback. David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm FranchiseRe, called the opening “an outstanding opening for a comedy sequel this far into the series.” He also framed the performance as a “huge bounceback” after the last episode crashed in 2013 when Anna Faris and Regina Hall were excluded, and he noted the weekend figure is triple the average for the genre. The message for leadership teams is simple: sequels still work, but only when they hit the expectations that formed in the audience’s head, not just when they arrive with a big studio checklist.

The sequel’s financial headline is the one that matters most, but the critical and audience signals are also telling. Reviews weren’t good, with 26% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and audience scores were “so-so,” with a “B” CinemaScore. In other words, the audience that drove the weekend did not need critics to bless the movie before buying tickets. That can be a big deal for boards and investment committees because it suggests demand is being pulled by cultural targeting and familiarity rather than by mainstream review consensus.

Now zoom out to the “expensive movie” that got outperformed. “Masters of the Universe” is a sword and sorcery action adventure based on the 1980s animated series and Mattel toys. It failed to revive a dormant franchise. The Amazon MGM release opened with $29.3 million domestically. Nicholas Galitzine stars as He-Man, and the movie added $25 million overseas. But with a production cost nearly $200 million, the launch needed a much higher opening for profitability to look likely. For Mattel Studios specifically, this is also their first release since 2023’s “Barbie.” And while “Barbie” delivered extraordinary success with $1.45 billion, “Masters of the Universe” is set up to be closer to a flop for the toy company. When leaders talk about “portfolio risk,” this is exactly the scenario they mean: one breakout hit does not sanitize the next release’s economics.

The rest of the weekend reinforces the point that money is following audience intent, not genre stereotypes or budget size. A24’s “Backrooms,” last weekend’s top release, slid steeply in its second weekend, dropping 68% with $25.9 million. Still, “Backrooms” is described as a record-breaking phenomenon for A24, now the highest grossing film ever with $212 million worldwide, moving ahead of “Marty Supreme.” Focus Features’ “Obsession” grossed $25.6 million in its fourth weekend, only a 7% drop, and it’s said to be the best fourth weekend for any horror movie on record not accounting for inflation. It cost less than $1 million to make and has grossed $152.1 million domestically and $224.8 million worldwide, a record for Focus.

Meanwhile, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” fell to sixth place with $10 million in its third weekend, even being bested by Fathom Entertainment’s “The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act,” a combination of the last two episodes of the animated series, which collected $12.7 million. Outside these genre battles, Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” became the studio’s highest grossing film ever with $898 million globally, overtaking both the highest grossing entries in the “Twilight” and “Hunger Games” franchises not accounting for inflation. And 2026 got its first billion-dollar movie as “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” crossed $1 billion worldwide for Universal.

Overall, the weekend was up 63% from the same weekend last year, according to Comscore, with ticket sales on the year up more than 13%. Next weekend, Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” debuts. The strategic stakes are clear for peers in the entertainment business: if your planning assumes budget scale will automatically translate into opening weekend leverage, this box office is a warning. “Scary Movie” can turn low-budget positioning into a franchise-best global launch, while a $200 million attempt struggles to justify itself. For executives, the question is not just what to fund, but how to align distribution, audience expectation, and sequel logic before the first weekend becomes the only weekend that counts.