“I don’t think it made that much money,” said Barrera of the sequel she was fired from
Credit: Arturo Holmes/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Melissa Barrera spoke to Variety about being fired in 2023 from a lead role in Scream 7 after starring in the previous two installments
- “I think they lied about the numbers,” she said of the movie’s box office results
- Barrera is currently starring on Broadway in Titanique
Melissa Barrera is calling Scream 7's box office success into question.
Speaking to Variety in an interview published Wednesday, May 6, the star of Broadway's Titanique said, “I think they lied about the numbers. I don't think it made that much money.”
The seventh installment in the Ghostface franchise, distributed by Paramount Pictures, reportedly earned $207 million worldwide after its Feb. 27 theatrical release, per BoxOfficeMojo. Following Barrera's answer, Variety noted that it "independently verifies box office gross" numbers.
It was reported in 2023 that production company Spyglass Media Group fired Barrera, 35, from leading Scream 7 reportedly due to comments she shared about the Israel-Hamas war. The In the Heights star had starred in the two previous installments alongside Jenna Ortega.
Credit: Jessica Miglio/Paramount Pictures
PEOPLE has reached out to a rep for Paramount for comment.
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Responding to Variety reporter Marlow Stern's assertion that the sequel “sucked,” Barrera responded, “I know.”
Credit: Paramount Pictures
At the St. James Theatre stage door where she greets fans after Titanique performances, the actress added, she signs Scream-related merchandise “every night. "People who love me from those movies are coming to see the show, and they can't ever take that away from me," she said.
Asked if the Scream 7 cast, which included her former costars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding, “were people basically crossing the picket line,” Barrera responded, “I think they all are. And they have to live with that.”
After being fired from the film and receiving what she describes as little public support, Barrera recalled wondering whether her stage and screen career was over: “The pessimistic side of me was having those thoughts, but the optimistic side of me was like, ‘F— no. I'm sure the tide will turn.' And it has.”
Barrera has made her Broadway debut in the Celine Dion-inspired Titanique, now playing. After starring onscreen in Peacock's 2025 thriller miniseries The Copenhagen Test, she counts the films The Collaboration and Black Tides among her upcoming projects.
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