Scream VI is already drawing its blood at the box office, where it earned $5.7 million in Thursday previews and fan screenings.

If all goes well, the latest installment in the slasher franchise will post a series-best domestic debut of $35 million over Oscar weekend for Paramount and Spyglass.

The last Scream film, released in January 2022, opened to $30 million domestically in an impressive showing for the pandemic era. The biggest North American start of the franchise belongs to 2000’s Scream 3 ($34.7 million), not adjusted for inflation.

Scream VI, which cost a reported $35 million to make before marketing, follows survivors of last year’s installment as they leave Woodsboro for New York City. Unfortunately, the menacing killer Ghostface isn’t far behind. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who run Radio Silence Productions with Chad Villella, returned to direct.

Melissa Barrera, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Jenna Ortega, Hayden Panettiere and Courteney Cox star alongside franchise newbies Dermot Mulroney, Jack Champion, Henry Czerny, Liana Liberato Devyn Nekoda, Tony Revolori, Josh Segarra and Samara Weaving.

Sony’s sci-fi dinosaur offering 65 , starring Adam Driver, also opens this weekend. Unlike Scream VI, the elevated genre pic has been mostly panned by critics (Sony waited until the 11th hour to screen 65 for reviewers, which is never a great sign).

Directed by A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, 65 stars Adam Driver as an astronaut who crash-lands on a mysterious planet, only to realize that he has become marooned on Earth 65 million years ago. With just a single opportunity for salvation, Mills and the sole other survivor, played by Ariana Greenblatt, must traverse an uncharted landscape infested with dinosaurs and other dangerous prehistoric beasts in a struggle for survival.

Despite its pedigree, 65 is only tracking to open in the $7 million to $9 million range and will have to compete with Scream VI for younger adults. The Sony pic cost a reported $45 million to make, and was co-financed by Bron Studios and TSG.

The third nationwide release this weekend is Focus Features’ heartwarming sports comedy Champions, starring Woody Harrelson as a minor-league basketball coach who is ordered by the court to manage a team of disabled players. The movie is based on the 2018 award-winning Spanish film Campeones, which was released by Universal Pictures International. 

Champions, like 65, is looking at a start in the mid-teens, meaning that Scream VI’s biggest competition will come from MGM’s holdover Creed III, which debuted last weekend to a far better-than-expected $58.4 million domestically.

More to come.