The Scream film franchise has continued slaying at the box office with this year's fifth installment of the slasher movie in which Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Neve Campbell reprised their roles from the 1996 original that started it all.
It was hardly surprising then when a sixth installment was announced.
However, fans were disappointed to discover Campbell's character Sidney Prescott–whom the films centered on–would not be returning to Woodsboro.
Campbell, who is an equal pay advocate, explained the reason why she rejected Scream 6 in a statement to Variety.
“Sadly, I won’t be making the next Scream film,” she said, adding:
“As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to Scream."
"I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise. It’s been a very difficult decision to move on."
Scream fans were gutted over the news.
Other hardcore Scream fans felt Sydney Prescott's permanent exit from Woodsboro made sense.
A prediction for the meta-thriller was made.
The actress spoke candidly about the systemic, unfair compensation of leading actresses in Hollywood in a conversation with legendary scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis.
“The truth of the matter is, I didn’t really make much money off of the horror movies," said Curtis, who is famous for playing Michael Myers' perpetually targeted victim, Laurie Strode, in the Halloween horror franchise.
She and Campbell discussed how mediocre their salaries on their respective horror films were and that there was no back-end deal which cut them out of film's profits.
"There’s always the promise of back end," added Campbell.
"And then, of course, it’s drowned in publicity and costs and all the reasons they say, ‘Oh, actually no, we didn’t make the amount of money that we’re claiming we made in all the press, so that we don’t have to give you that,’ unfortunately."
In her statement to Variety, Campbell addressed fans lamenting her absence in the upcoming sequel.
"To all my Scream fans, I love you," she said.
"You’ve always been so incredibly supportive to me. I’m forever grateful to you and to what this franchise has given me over the past 25 years.”
The yet-to-be-titled Scream 6 is scheduled to start production this summer and is slated for a March 31, 2023 release.
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