Is There A Scary Movie 6 Being Made?
We think that moviegoers of all stripes can unite behind one simple truth: that the Scary Movie series, which has sent up all of our favorite horror flicks since the debut of the first film two decades ago, are the greatest cultural achievement that humankind has ever produced. Each successive entry has been even more of an artistic triumph than the last, and we're just going to go ahead and stop with this gag before it gets too far out of hand, because of course we're fooling around.
The Scary Movie flicks have the dubious honor of having given birth to an entire catalog of absolutely terrible films, lazy satires that make sure to let audiences know what they're in for with their deadpan titles (Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, etc.), ensuring that nobody has to think too hard about anything. But the films in the parent series, despite many of their pop culture references being understandably dated, are actually pretty darned funny, owing to the fact that they were made by people with plenty of experience in the slapstick comedy game.
The first two flicks, 2000's Scary Movie and 2001's Scary Movie 2, were directed by comedy legend Keenan Ivory Wayans, creator of the iconic sketch comedy series In Living Color and director of the criminally underrated 1988 blaxploitation satire I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (and they were co-written by his brothers Marlon and Shawn, both very funny guys as well). 2003's Scary Movie 3 and 2006's Scary Movie 4 were directed by David Zucker, whose qualifications are as follows: he directed Airplane! and The Naked Gun, and is therefore entitled to make any goofy slapstick movie he darn well pleases.
Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee took over for 2013's Scary Movie 5, widely regarded by fans to be the worst entry in the series. Since then, though, they (and we) have been wondering: can the franchise get back on track? Will there ever be a Scary Movie 6?
There are no known plans for Scary Movie 6
We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we won't keep you in suspense: currently, there are no plans to continue the series with a sixth installment. Oh, Zucker is atill around, and so are all of the Wayanses. There have been plenty of fright flicks ripe for parody since 2013, and nobody ever went broke making movies that aim squarely for lowbrow laughs. When it comes to the Scary Movie flicks, though, there are a couple of pretty good reasons why we'll probably never get another one.
First, the box office performances of the entire series have always been hit-and-miss, and Scary Movie 5 was by far the lowest-grossing of them all. While Scary Movie 4 turned in a respectable $178 million worldwide, the fifth entry managed only $78 million — that's right, a full $100 million less than its predecessor.
Second, every single entry in the series was produced by Dimension Films, which was co-founded by a famed producer by the name of Harvey Weinstein, who is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for sexual assault. In 2018, the Dimension name and all of the production house's assets were acquired by Lantern Entertainment. That company has gotten off to a slow start, producing only four films in the intervening time frame. Notably, one of the two films currently in Lantern's pipeline in Scream 5, a sequel to the flick that the original Scary Movie parodied.
With the value of the Scary Movie brand hovering somewhere around "nonexistent," and the franchise's production company rebranded and struggling to find its focus, there just doesn't seem to be any incentive to make a sixth movie happen. Perhaps someday, Lantern will drag the franchise out of mothballs. Until then, we'll just have to count on the Adam Sandlers and Rob Schneiders of the world to supply us with those easy chuckles.