While you were sleeping, Scary Movie, the comedy that made fun of slasher films like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, turned 20 years old today.
The movie that every studio passed on except for Harvey Weinstein’s Dimension Films was made for a mere $19 million, but collected more than $157 million at the domestic box office, Variety reports. Scary Movie’s opening day wasn’t too shabby either—it made a cool $15 million.
The movie birthed a franchise, including four more films, but the Wayans brothers involvement with Scary Movie ended after 2001’s second installment. Still, Scary’s success boosted the Hollywood profiles of Regina Hall (Brenda), Marlon Wayans (Shorty) and Shawn Wayans (Ray).
Marlon, who later found success with White Chicks and the Haunted House franchise, said that critics panned the movie. But that didn’t bother him much since audiences were cracking up in the theater, especially during the Wassup scene, which was inspired by Charles Stone’s popular Budweiser commercial.
“Like most of our movies, it got critically panned. It always does, but you know, comedy is subjective. And that’s not to say the critics are right or wrong, but that’s just not their brand of humor. Their job is to critique,” said Marlon, who recently inked an overall deal with HBO Max. “But our audience, 20 years later, people are still laughing. We don’t try to make a movie. We try to make a classic. And even if you don’t get it at the time, it’s something you go back to and watch it and go, ‘Man, that was funny.’ ”
Marlon and longtime producing partner Rick Alvarez will star in Book of Marlon on HBO Max.