Disney’s Haunted Mansion (2023) has had a disappointing reception at the box office since its release a week ago. The film, which is based on the iconic Disney Parks’ attraction of the same name, was a second attempt at creating a movie based on the ride, after the 2003 Eddie Murphy version has long been considered a disappointment for the entertainment company.
While the film’s disappointing performance could be blamed on a number of reasons, one confusing decision by Disney has fans scratching their head. The Haunted Mansion is one of the most popular rides throughout the Disney Parks for its spooky ambiance, and slightly more adult theming compared to the other attractions found throughout the Parks. That being said, its popularity is never higher than around Halloween time. For that reason, fans were confused when Disney announced that the film would be released in July rather than waiting for a Halloween release.

The Walt Disney Company had pulled a similar move decades ago with the release of Hocus Pocus (1993), which saw a disappointing July release only to become a cult hit turned Halloween classic years later. It’s unclear if Disney is hoping that the 2023 Haunted Mansion will have a similar boom, or if it was hoping to capitalize on a fall release to Disney+, but it’s been a weird move nonetheless. However, as we head into August, and the true start of Disney’s Halloween time, Disney isn’t the only entertainment company looking towards Halloween.
It was just recently announced that Scream 7 is officially in production under Paramount, with director Christopher Landon signing onto the project. Landon is best known for directing Happy Death Day (2017), which has seen much success since its release. The sixth installment of the Scream franchise was released earlier this year and featured the return of current reigning Scream Queen, Jenna Ortega. It also saw the return of fan favorites from the previous original Scream films, including Courteney Cox and Hayden Panettiere and broke franchise records for being the highest-grossing Scream release.

Jenna Ortega has become the Christina Ricci of the modern horror movie scene. Back in the day, Christina Ricci was in Casper and both Addams Family movies as Wednesday Addams. Ortega recently took on the iconic role of the pigtail wearing Addam’s daughter herself with the release of Wednesday on Netflix. The series skyrocketed Ortega to a household name, although it wasn’t her first foray into the spooky genre as she had featured in 2022’s Scream revival and X (2022).
Recently, she’s been working on Beetlejuice 2, joining the iconic film as the daughter of Lydia Deetz, played by Winona Ryder, another horror darling. Ryder most recently starred in Netflix’s Stranger Things, and had previously starred in Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, and Beetlejuice in the early days of her career.

Clearly, Ortega is well on her way to joining the ranks of Ricci and Ryder, although it remains to be seeing if she’ll be returning for a new Scream movie. Not much else is known about the upcoming film, other than it likely won’t see any further developments until after the Hollywood strikes have ended.
Would you like to see Jenna Ortega return for Scream 7? Let us know in the comments below!