Neve Campbell's Scream 7 topples Wuthering Heights at box office

Scream 7 has scythed a path to the top of the weekend box office, toppling last week's winner, Wuthering Heights.

The seventh instalment of the slasher franchise grossed $28.8 million (£21.4 million) on Friday throughout the US, on track for a $60 million (£44.6 million) opening weekend, which would mark the best debut in the franchise's history, Variety reports.

The animated family film GOAT landed at No 2, while Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi's Wuthering Heights dropped to third place. Fourth place went to concert film Twenty One Pilots: More Than We Ever Imagined, while Crime 101 came in a distant fifth.

Scream 7 sees the return of Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott, who relocates to the small town of Pine Grove for a quiet life with her daughter, only to have Ghostface try to burn it all down. Campbell stars alongside fellow original cast members Courteney Cox, David Arquette and Matthew Lillard, as well as Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, Joel McHale and Mckenna Grace.

Preproduction was plagued by controversy, including the exit of stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, and the return of Campbell after a pay dispute caused her to bow out of Scream 6.