The Scream franchise is back and the new movie has been given an 18 age rating by the BBFC for showing in UK cinemas.

The movie has most of the original stars return to the franchise, Neve Campbell is back once more as Sidney Prescott and Courteney Cox reprises her role of reporter Gale Riley, Gale Weathers from the original movie.

The movie is co-directed byMatt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett who both have a good pedigree in the horror genre with films like Devil's Due and V/H/S.

Movie Synopsis

Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, Calif., a new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town's deadly past.

BBFC certificate breakdown.

• Title: Scream
• BBFC age rating: 18 Certificate
• Reason: strong bloody violence
• Release date: 14th January 2022
• Runtime: 114m (1 hour 44 minutes)
• Director:
  • Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
  • Tyler Gillett
• Starring:
  • Neve Campbell
  • Courteney Cox
  • David Arquette

BBFC movie page

In a year which saw a worrying trend of movies not getting a theatrical release due to the global pandemic that hit the world in 2020 its unsure if the industry will recover as studios see big returns for movies on streaming services rather than box office returns.

The biggest grossing movie in the UK for the year is 1917 from director Sam Mandes which was released in January and has not been challenged all year as movies after March had no chance of making a substantial box office return.

The two movies which tried the most were Tenet released in August and did manage to become the 5th top movie of the year and Wonder Woman 1984 which although released in December, after many release changes, was hit by another UK lockdown which has massively impacted its box office potential.

Of the top 5 movies in the UK 2 of them were released in 2019 and 2 of them released in early 2020 with Tenet being the other.

Worth of a mention is that apart from Tenet which is the top movie in the pandemic era sleeper hit After We Collided which was released in early September is the 20th top movie of the year with a total gross of £4 Million, a great achievement in the current market.

Also worthy of a mention is the success the Disney/Pixar movie Onward had at the box office, it was the top movie of the week in March when cinemas closed, then the movie continued to top the box office when cinemas re-opened in July despite already being available on Disney+, the movie is the 12 top movie of 2020 with £7.5 Million.

With a vaccine not hitting the UK in late 2020 the first part of 2021 might be slow for cinemas as well, but providing they can survive once we hit spring it is hopeful doors will start to open again and capacity can return to normal and the box office can start properly once more.

Here is a break down of the top 5 movies in the UK for 2020.

1917

Released in January of 2020 the single shot Oscar nominated movie took £43.7 Million by mid March when cinemas shut down.

The film took a total gross of £43.9 Million by the end of 2020 and is the top movie of the year.

Sonic the Hedgehog

After a troubled first showing of Sonic when the lead character was redesign at the request of the fans, the movie was delayed to mid February 2020 where it took just nuder five million pound on its opening weekend.

After a five week run the Jim Carey starring movie had taken £19 Million and then after cinemas re-opened it's total UK gross rose to £19.2 Million.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Released at the very end of 2019 the JJ Abrams directed, last of the Skywalker sega, took £29.4 Million during its release year.

The movie continued to pull in audiences on 2020 and took another £18.8 Million until the end of January.

Little Women

Released on the last weekend of 2019 where is took £3.5 Million the movie continued to do well into 2020 where it took an extra £17.5 Million until mid February.

Tenet

After getting its original release date moved to 28th August the movie was to be the saviour of cinema after 4 month of closures to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Despite much criticism for Warner Bros. releasing the movie when not all cinemas had reopened and capacity was limited the movie spend 13 weeks on the chart taking £17.5 Million and scraped its way into the top 5 movies of 2020.

With the recent release of Tenet not lighting up cinemas around the world, especially in America, it comes as no surprise that Warner Bros. have moved Wonder Woman 1984 to later in the year, December 25th in the US and December 26th in the UK.

Director Patty Jenkins announced when the film first got moved earlier in the year that the movie had to be seen on the big screen, the movie was moved once more and now gets moved again.

The release of Christopher Nolans Tenet could be seen as a test, and it would seem that test failed with many cinemas still not open across the world and other places like Europe starting to see a spike in COVID-19 cases with potential closures set to resume again.

This move also puts into doubt the release of the 25th Bond movie No Time To Die due November 12th along with Black Widow on October 23rd, which many fans fear could go direct to Disney+ for a premium like Mulan.

There are many other potential blockbuster toward the end of 2020 and into 2021 which could also be in danger of a release move or a direct to digital release.

With many predicting that the pandemic might not be over until late in 2021 this is bad news for the cinema industry and could see many independent business closing and a potential of larger chains also struggling.

Still no sign of the US closedown ending anytime soon so the American box office is once more relying on mainly drive-in movie theatres for its figures.

This week the Dave Franco directed The Rental tops the box office with ease and is the widest release since the pandemic closed 99% of movie theatres.

Here is a rundown of the top 5 box office films in America 24th - 26th July 2020.

The Rental

Directed by Dave Franco this horror suspense movie takes the top spot with ease, last weeks Beauty And The Beast live action doesn't even feature on this week chart.

The movie takes $403.8K over its debut weekend giving the actor turned director a sizeable hit even under these strange circumstances.

The Karate Kid

Re-released movies are going to be a mainstay of the box office for the foreseeable future as studios keep on changing their release schedule and this week this 1984 classic is a 'new' entry at number 2.

The Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita starring movie takes $225K over the weekend with a total gross since release of $91 Million.

The Goonies

Climbing from last weeks number 5 to 3 is this old Richard Donner favourite which takes $176K over the weekend pushing its total in the US to $62.5 Million.

Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg classic Dinosaur movie for 1993 stays put at 4 this week with $173K, the films has now taken $403.5 Million wince its release.

The Big Ugly

Highest new film of the week with this Scott Wiper directed movie which takes a modest $150K over the weekend.

The movie starrs among other Vinnie Jones and Ron Perlman.

Because of the global coronavirus pandemic, and orders by many American states for restaurants, bars, cafe's and cinemas to shut until further notice there will be no box office figures released.

Because of this we are unable to report on the weekend box office in the US.

Once the pandemic is under control and life starts to go back to normal with the opening of public spaces and figures start to get released again we will start reporting and analysing the weekend box office once more.

We will continue to report on any movie news that does get released although we expect this to be far and few between.