Why Scary Movie is making millions at the box office despite being panned by critics

The $55 million opening for "Scary Movie" has reignited debate about how Black-oriented spoof films — particularly those from the Wayans brothers — are judged by critics compared with their box-office performance. "Scary Movie" blew well past its $40 million tracking prediction yet earned an anemic 25% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes.

That 25% is actually high compared with previous Wayans family films and the gap between critics and audiences has been consistent: the 2004 comedy "White Chicks" grossed $113.1 million but scored 15%, the 2006 comedy "Little Man" grossed $104 million worldwide but received 12%, and the 1996 comedy "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juicein the Hood" grossed $21 million on a $3.8 million budget yet received 32%.

An 'X' user wrote, "Yall don’t wanna open this can of worms on how critics perceive black led comedy film versus white led ones," after a post noted that "The Naked Gun" reboot received an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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