Locally made 'Scream' hits No. 1 at box office, showcases many Wilmington locations

Editor's note: This story may contain spoilers for those who have not yet seen "Scream."

For the second time in three months, a movie made in Wilmington is the No. 1 movie in America.

"Scream," the self-conscious slasher whodunit that shot in Wilmington in the fall of 2020, opened Jan. 14 and earned an estimated $36 million at the U.S. box office over the weekend to knock "Spider-Man: No Way Home" out of the top spot, which the superhero movie had held for four consecutive weeks.

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"Scream," the so-called "requel" and fifth film in the horror franchise, follows in the bloody footsteps of "Halloween Kills," which shot in Wilmington in 2019 and took the No. 1 spot at the box office for one weekend last October.

Like "Halloween Kills," "Scream," co-directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, is a showcase for the Wilmington area. While much of the film was shot on elaborate sets at EUE/Screen Gems Studio, many Port City locations show up as well.

More: Wilmington-shot 'Halloween Kills' is No. 1 at the box office; 'Hightown' shows off beaches

In the film's opening montage, a young woman played by Jenna Ortega is attacked by Ghostface — the masked, robed, knife-wielding killer of the "Scream" movies — in a home at 1201 Country Club Road in Wilmington.

Immediately after that, an extended scene between stars Melissa Barrera and Jack Quaid takes place outside the Cardinal Lanes bowling alley on Shipyard Boulevard.

Later, Barrera and Quaid take a drive around Greenfield Lake on their way to "Woodsboro," where the movie is set, and students playing high schoolers discuss the Ghostface attacks under the large oak tree outside of Williston Middle School.

Wilmington rock club Reggie's 42nd Street Tavern is the setting for a scene in which the high schoolers shoot pool, and a poster for the Wilmington band He Is Legend can be seen in the background.

Original "Scream" star Neve Campbell is shown jogging on the Wilmington Riverwalk when her character, Sidney Prescott, gets a call warning her that Ghostface is back.

The former Tileston school at Fourth and Ann streets downtown gets some screen time, as does the area around Fifth Avenue and Castle Street, during driving scenes that locals might find a little comical.

Speeding home to save her son from Ghostface, Sheriff Hicks (played by Marley Shelton) is ostensibly driving in the same direction even though her car is shown going in multiple directions near Fifth and Castle. During the course of those and other shots, the firehouse and Howard's Seafood & Convenience Store at Fifth and Castle can be seen.

The house the sheriff is driving to, and where yet another Ghostface attack takes place, is located at 1801 Chestnut St. in Wilmington, and that neighborhood gets a fair amount of screen time.

A shot of downtown Wilmington's South Front Street, looking North from between Orange and Dock streets, evokes an almost identical shot from 1986 film "Blue Velvet." In the "Scream" shot on Front Street, a sign for "Elm Street" can be seen, an homage to original "Scream" director Wes Craven, who also directed the "Nightmare on Elm Street" films.

Another Wilmington connection pops up when Ortega's character can be seen watching teen drama "Dawson's Creek" while in the hospital. The show was shot in Wilmington in the late '90s and early 2000s, and was written by Kevin Williamson, who wrote the original "Scream" and is a producer of "Scream" 2022.

In other scenes, the Wilmington Convention Center plays the lobby of the Woodsboro Regional Medical Center, and work by Wilmington artists Sarah Rushing Doss and Don Henderson Baker can be seen on the walls of houses where Ghostface attacks his victims.

Also — and this is a big spoiler — the actor Skeet Ulrich appears in a few scenes. Ulrich starred in the original "Scream" from 1996. But he also attended the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the early 1990s, which gives the new "Scream" yet another Wilmington bond.

Before the movie begins, cstars Campbell and Courteney Cox appear in a brief segment thanking audience members for seeing "Scream" on the big screen, "the way it was meant to be seen." Some had called for Paramount to stream "Scream" on its Paramount Plus service or to push its release date back in response to the omicron coronavirus variant, which had surged in recent weeks.

But the virus didn't appear to keep too many people away from the theater, and "Scream" enjoyed a solid opening weekend.

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 'Scream' is the No. 1 movie in America, showcases Wilmington locations