Spoofs and parodies have been a part of the cinematic diet for as long as anyone can remember, but Scary Movie ended up doing a great deal more harm than good when it ended up launching the single worst billion-dollar franchise the industry has ever seen, and that includes Michael Bay’s five-film stint at the forefront of Transformers.
While the first installment was a Wayans brothers production that saw Keenen Ivory directing with Shawn and Marlon taking top billing among the ensemble, it was the presence of writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer that served as an ominous warning of what was to come, with the duo conspiring to deliver a consistent string of some of the worst movies of all-time.
Friedberg and Seltzer were only involved in the opener, but the Scary Movie brand as a whole would go on to earn almost $900 million at the box office in the face of diminishing returns. Conspiring to carve out their own corner of the “comedy” universe, the filmmakers penned and helmed Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie, Vampires Suck, The Starving Games, and Superfast, all of which scored Rotten Tomatoes approval ratings of between zero and seven percent.
They still inexplicably made money, though, with the IP combining to bring in a cumulative box office haul north of $1.2 billion, which is as staggering as it is infuriating. A deserving entrant into comedy’s hall of shame, Scary Movie is undoubtedly the best of the bunch by a wide margin, and it’s back for more on streaming.
Per FlixPatrol, the scattershot ode to the slasher has taken up the mantle of fifth spot on the Paramount Plus worldwide watch-list, but let’s just hope none of the other ones decide to follow suit.