{"id":453337,"date":"2026-03-02T09:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453337\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T09:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T09:01:09","slug":"scream-7-defies-protests-over-melissa-barrera-firing-to-break-box-office-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/453337\/","title":{"rendered":"Scream 7 defies protests over Melissa Barrera firing to break box office record"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Scream 7<\/a> has smashed box office records to become the highest-grossing film in the long-running franchise.<\/a><\/p>\n

The series began with 1996\u2019s Scream, and the new film sees the return of original writer Kevin Williamson as writer-director.<\/p>\n

As Variety<\/a> reports, Scream 7 made $97.2 million in worldwide ticket sales on its opening weekend, generating $64.1 million in North America and a further $33.1 million overseas.<\/p>\n

The previous opening weekend record was held by 2023\u2019s Scream VI, which made $44.4 million domestically.<\/p>\n

The impressive box office performance comes after the film\u2019s premiere was interrupted by activists gathered outside the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles.<\/a><\/p>\n

They had gathered to protest the film\u2019s controversial firing of Melissa Barrera<\/a> over Instagram posts that were deemed antisemitic by the film\u2019s production company.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The killer \u2018Ghostface\u2019 appearing in \u2018Scream 7\u2019, which has broken box office records for the franchise (Paramount)<\/p>\n

As the cast of the slasher franchise\u2019s new movie<\/a> walked the red carpet Wednesday, a group of protesters walked the studio lot\u2019s sidewalks shouting pro-Palestine chants, banging on drums and holding signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cParamount has a BLACKLIST of actors who criticize Israel,\u201d one sign read, while another urged fans to: \u201cCancel Paramount+.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boycott was led by Entertainment Labor for Palestine, CODEPINK LA, Musicians for Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace-Los Angeles, according to Deadline<\/a>. Many also vocalized their support of Barrera, 35, who later appeared to respond, \u201cI see you,\u201d with a red heart emoji on her Instagram Story.<\/p>\n

When asked about the protests at the premiere, Williamson told The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>: \u201cI saw them and my heart just sort of stopped. Look, we live in America. Everyone has a right to protest and everyone should be heard. And if you have your truth and if you want to stand up and be heard, you protest. That is your right in this country, and I stand by it. I support that 100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Melissa<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Melissa Barrera was fired from ‘Scream 7’ over Instagram posts that Paramount deemed antisemitic (Getty)<\/p>\n

Barrera previously starred as Samantha Carpenter in the iconic horror franchise\u2019s 2022 reboot Scream and its sequel Scream 6. She was expected to reprise her role in the latest iteration, but was dropped from the cast in 2023 due to a series of Instagram posts she made about the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n

\u201cGaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,\u201d the In the Heights star wrote in one post.<\/p>\n

\u201cCornering everyone together, with nowhere to go, no electricity no water \u2026 People have learnt nothing from our histories. And just like our histories, people are still silently watching it all happen. THIS IS GENOCIDE & ETHNIC CLEANSING.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramount partnered with Spyglass Media Group as a co-producer on Scream (2022), Scream VI (2023), and Scream 7. A spokesperson for Spyglass told The Independent in a statement at the time of Barrera\u2019s firing: \u201cSpyglass\u2019 stance is unequivocally clear: We have zero tolerance for antisemitism or the incitement of hate in any form, including false references to genocide, ethnic cleansing, Holocaust distortion or anything that flagrantly crosses the line into hate speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrera\u2019s removal led to a tumultuous period for the film, as co-star Jenna Ortega soon pulled out of her role as Tara Carpenter \u2014 the younger sister of Samantha \u2014 with director Christopher Landon following suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made my decision to walk away about a week after they fired her,\u201d Landon said in an interview with author Ashley Cullins. \u201cThere was no movie anymore. The whole script was about her. I didn\u2019t sign on to make \u2018a Scream movie.\u2019 I signed on to make that movie. When that movie no longer existed, I moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williamson later stepped in to helm Scream 7, which required a major script overhaul that cost roughly $500,000, per Variety<\/a>. The franchise\u2019s original star, Neve Campbell, then boarded the film alongside returning cast members Matthew Lillard, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding. Mckenna Grace, Anna Camp and Isabel May are among several new cast members joining the franchise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-453337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}