Amid the Omicron surge, the box office revenue from this Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend will be a fraction of what it was in pre-pandemic years (remember those?). But Paramount will try to find some low-budget horror success with the return of “Scream,” the late Wes Craven’s hit ’90s horror series that deconstructed the tropes of the slasher genre — and that could end the month-long reign of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” atop the box office charts.
Independent tracking has “Scream” earning $30-35 million over the extended four-day holiday weekend, while Paramount is anticipating a more modest opening in the $20 million range.