Never bet against a group of animated birds. While I thought the return of the Scream franchise would ignite a bit of a box office battle, it was not to be the case as Rio continued this spring’s animation domination with $40 million and a first-place finish. Scream 4, meanwhile, couldn’t muster up enough to pass $20 million (Scream 3 opened with $34 million), which could be a bad sign when it comes to more Scream sequels from here on out (the fourquel finished with $19 million).
Critics seemed to agree with the box office, as Rio scored 72% Fresh over at Rotten Tomatoes, with Scream 4 coming in at 58% Rotten. It’s surprising to see Scream 4 come up short, especially since the film dominated in our Most Anticipated April Movie poll, devouring 53% of the vote. The closest film to that was Fast Five with 12%. So why didn’t more people check out the horror sequel? Did the R rating hurt it too much, or was there just too much distance between sequels that audiences sort of wrote off the franchise already?
Let us know what you think in the comments section and by voting in the polls below.
