ScreamWire Daily

Backrooms is now A24’s first $200M-plus release worldwide, hitting $212M in just 10 days and turning a roughly $10M horror feature into a runaway profit machine. The film has already reset A24’s box-office ceiling in North America and across more than 50 international territories.

$225M worldwide on a $750K budget; Focus Features paid $15M plus P&A for Curry Barker’s breakout, and sequel talk has not formally started despite Barker’s packed slate, including Anything But Ghosts in post and A24’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre in development.

Blumhouse locks Blair Witch and Paranormal Activity for 2027, with Dylan Clark set to direct Blair Witch and Ian Tuason steering Paranormal Activity; original creators and key cast are EPing to keep both franchises aligned with their roots.

Curry Barker’s Obsession crossed $200M worldwide and is now Focus Features’ biggest title of all time; the horror breakout dropped just 7% in its fourth weekend after Focus bought it out of TIFF for about $15M. Barker shot the film for $750K and is already attached to A24’s Texas Chainsaw reboot.

Netflix’s Scooby-Doo: Origins is in production in Atlanta for a 2027 launch; the live-action reboot puts a real Great Dane at the center of a supernatural murder mystery. Josh Appelbaum and Scott Rosenberg run the series for Warner Bros. Television, with Paul Walter Hauser in a secret role and Greg Berlanti among the EPs.

$55M domestic and $105M worldwide gives Scary Movie the biggest opening in franchise history, topping the series' prior $45M record and marking the Wayans brothers' return to the brand.

$4M third-weekend haul kept Yeon Sang-ho’s zombie thriller Colony atop South Korea; the film has now climbed to $32.6M on 4.73M admissions, with the overall market slipping to $9.1M. Wild Sing opened to $2M, while Backrooms crossed $5.5M locally.

Low-budget horrors Backrooms and Obsession are outmuscling megabudget IP plays; Obsession has hit $225M global and Backrooms $135M US against $1M and $10M budgets, respectively. The piece frames the run as a Gen Z-driven reset for theatrical horror economics versus $165M The Mandalorian and Grogu and $200M Masters of the Universe.

Netflix’s Ghostbusters: Night Shift is the new title for the animated franchise series, now set for a 2027 premiere. The live-action-adjacent reboot is in production under Sony Pictures Animation and Ghost Corps, with Ben Hibon and Elliott Kalan steering the show and Jason Reitman/Gil Kenan EPing.

Netflix has Matt Charman adapting No Way Out for Archewell Productions under its first-look deal; the feature turns Major Adam Jowett’s Afghanistan siege memoir into a military thriller about Easy Company’s 21-day stand at Musa Qala. The project extends Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix pipeline beyond their existing slate.

Dead End Films has completed The Yellow Balloon: The Curse of Vincent Vile and is shopping the horror-comedy to distributors with screeners now out; the feature is already positioned for cult-horror audiences. Killer Shorts also opens June 6 with a feature-screenplay expansion, a $5,000 grand prize, and a John Zaozirny review baked into the win.

Frontières’ Fantasia slate spotlights genre projects in development across body horror, folk terror, sci-fi, dark comedy and psychological thriller lanes; the market remains a key launchpad for packages heading to buyers.

$29.3M North American debut for Masters of the Universe on a production budget approaching $200M; Amazon MGM is framing the opening as the start of a long-tail theatrical-to-franchise play. The film’s profitability now hinges on hold, international play and downstream window performance.

Cam falls off Netflix as the seven-year exclusivity window expires; Daniel Goldhaber has put the 2018 Netflix-acquired techno-horror on his site for free. The $1M indie’s orphaned status underscores how quickly low-budget horror can lose a home when SVOD licenses roll off.

Independent Film Company and Shudder pick up Tribeca horror Breeder for the U.S., Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand ahead of a fall theatrical rollout. Cranked Up Films also sets folk-horror title Love Is the Monster for Prime Video on June 23.

Zack Snyder is writing and directing a reimagining of Escape from New York; Studiocanal and The Picture Company are packaging the project and taking it to market after years of stalled remake attempts.

Candr Pictures has optioned Adrian J. Walker’s post-apocalyptic novel The End of the World Running Club for a feature adaptation. Chris Reading is writing and directing; Walker is EP, with the story centering on a 500-mile race through an asteroid-ravaged Europe.

Bloober Team and Lionsgate unveil SAW: Genesis, a 3v1 multiplayer horror game that expands the franchise into pre-Jigsaw lore with Anshar Studios attached.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie became 2026’s first $1B hit, lifting Universal and Illumination’s two-film Mario franchise to $2.3B worldwide. Michael is also closing on the milestone, with Lionsgate and Universal’s biopic at $888M global.

Italian Global Series rolls out a 21-title competition from 15 countries, with The Terror With Devil in Silver in the drama section and a Star Trek 60th-anniversary push capped by a preview of Strange New Worlds season 4. Panels also put Alien: Earth, Blade Runner 2099 and Wednesday producers on the stage for an international-production conversation.

Rising Swan is locking Spain and Japan shoot plans on female-led action thriller Iris, with Toei handling the Japanese leg’s facilities, crew support and incentive paperwork. Lisa C. Satriano is set for her feature directing debut, with production targeted for fall 2026.

No. 1 on Shudder within days of its May 7 launch, The Terror: Devil in Silver is already breaking out in Canada too, with a June 11 finale ahead and a 95% Certified Fresh score. Victor LaValle’s source material and the cast-led anthology format are giving AMC Networks an immediate horror-streaming win.

Indonesian horror feature 'Korean Haunted Hospital' lands a world premiere at BiFan, putting the title into one of Asia's key genre-festival showcases ahead of rollout. The slot gives the film early market visibility inside Bucheon's horror-heavy programming ecosystem.

Eight-year Ghostbusters II doc has wrapped and boarded world sales via Unannounced Film Company ahead of a fall festival/market launch. The sequel to Cleanin’ Up The Town leans on franchise voices Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and archival material from Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman.

Prime Video's Hazbin Hotel is headed to Season 5 as its final chapter; Vivienne Medrano has Seasons 3 and 4 greenlit together, with the run likely stretching into 2030.

The Resonance won Best Horror Short at Astoria Film Festival and picked up a free professional press and marketing campaign from Marketing Macabre. The win gives Sashia Dumont and Paul Robinson a cleaner launch pad as they push the psychological-supernatural short beyond the fest circuit.

Amazon MGM’s The Kellys adds Kelsey Asbille and Abby Elliott as the Arnold Schwarzenegger-Liam Hemsworth action package moves through production. Brad Peyton directs from Tze Chun’s script; the film is still headed straight to streaming.

The Arena is launching SNK’s new IP banner with film and animation adaptations of Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. David S. Goyer is scripting Fatal Fury, while Erik Feig, Matt Reilly and Markus Gerdemann are building a 100% IP-adaptation shop around the South Town universe.

Acrostar Productions launches crowdfunding for Revenge of the Corn Zombies, with a July 2026 shoot locked at the haunted Indiana State Sanatorium and BayView Entertainment already on distribution. The finale closes Steve Hermann’s indie zombie trilogy and leans hard into practical effects.

David S. Goyer boards SNK's Fatal Fury film adaptation for The Arena and Skybound Entertainment, keeping videogame IP in the adaptation pipeline as game rights remain a hot commodity.