Scream 7 is perhaps the franchise’s most divisive movie yet. Some fans loved the return of Sidney and the rise of a new final girl in her daughter Tatum. Others deeply disliked the film, specifically citing its AI heavy premise, pandering to Stu Macher fans, and lackluster killer reveal and motivations. But, according to Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Media Group, Scream 7 was highly successful with the best opening weekend of any film in the franchise. However, former Scream star Melissa Barrera had some thoughts about Scream 7’s reported success, and she thinks the numbers are a lie.
Barrera starred as Sam Carpenter in Scream (2022) and Scream VI and was set to lead the franchise’s future. However, she was fired by Spyglass Media Group for making pro-Palestine comments on her social media pages and criticizing Israel’s war with Hamas. This led to a complete shift in the storyline for Scream 7, and Sidney returned as the lead. The film supposedly made $200 million at the global box office, but Barrera thinks those Scream 7 numbers are false and called the film “nostalgia bait” during an interview with Variety.
“I think they lied about the numbers,” Barrera told Variety. “I don’t think it made that much money.” The interviewer said Scream 7 “sucked,” and Barrera replied, “I know.”
Oof. Now, in terms of box office numbers, those are quite easily verifiable through other sources besides what a production company’s PR team says. And the film did indeed make more than $200 million globally according to Box Office Mojo. Shortly after Barrera’s firing, her co-star and onscreen sister Jenna Ortega voluntarily left the franchise as well. She later admitted that production was “crumbling” after the Barrera incident and she no longer wanted to be in Scream 7. However, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding did reprise their roles as twins Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin in Scream 7, and Barrera had thoughts about that.
When Variety asked if she thought her former co-stars were “scabby” and “crossing the picket line,” she said, “Oh, one hundred percent. I think they all are. And they have to live with that. The only way they were able to make that movie after what happened was to nostalgia-bait as much as possible.”
Oof again! Both Gooding and Savoy Brown did comment during various interviews saying that the loved Barrera and supported her, yet the did come back to a franchise that fired her. I don’t know any of these people personally, so that’s not my business to comment on. But, from a purely narrative standpoint, they literally had no reason to return for Scream 7 other than getting paid.
Their stories were intrinsically tied to Sam and Tara’s stories, which ended neatly in Scream VI. They barely knew or even spoke to Gail onscreen and had no interactions with Sidney at all. And, you could have literally taken them out of Scream 7 and it would not have had a major impact on its storyline. They also had no true character growth here. Make of that what you will.
But, on a positive note, Barrera does cherish the time she had in the Scream franchise and praised her supportive fans. Many US fans discovered her for the first time through the franchise and have supported her work in projects since then, like the delightful horror film Abigail.
“People who love me from those movies are coming to see the show, and they can’t ever take that away from me,” she said. “Scream is always going to be a big part of me because it was two years of my life, it gave me a lot, and I’m grateful specifically to [directors] Matt [Bettinelli-Olpin] and Tyler [Gillett] who gave me that shot. That hasn’t been soured for me. They don’t have that power.”