Scream 3

Cotton Weary, now a successful talk show host, is contacted by Ghostface, who demands to know the whereabouts of Sidney Prescott. When Cotton refuses to cooperate, Ghostface murders him and his girlfriend Christine. Detective Mark Kincaid contacts Gale Weathers to discuss Cotton's murder, prompting her to travel to Hollywood. She finds Dewey Riley working as an adviser on the set of Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro, the third film in the series based on the Ghostface murders. Ghostface kills Stab 3 actress Sarah Darling, halting the film's production to the frustration of director Roman Bridger. The remaining cast, along with Dewey and Gale, gather at the home of Jennifer Jolie, the actress playing Gale in Stab 3. Ghostface stabs Jennifer's bodyguard, Stone, to death and causes a gas explosion, killing co-star Tom Prinze. Elsewhere, Sidney is living in seclusion under an alias, fearing another killer may strike, and works as a crisis counselor for an abused women's hotline. Having uncovered her location, the killer begins taunting Sidney using a voice changer to sound like her deceased mother Maureen Prescott. Sidney travels to Hollywood, realizing she is no longer safe. Gale and Jennifer learn that Maureen briefly worked as an actress in the 1970s under the stage name "Rina Reynolds" and had been raped at a party held by Stab 3 producer John Milton. Martha Meeks, the sister of Sidney's murdered friend Randy, visits Sidney and the others to deliver a videotape that Randy made before his death. Randy posthumously warns them the rules of a horror film do not apply in the third film of a trilogy and that any of them could die. Sidney is later attacked by Ghostface on the Stab 3 set, forcing the police to hold her for protection. Dewey, Gale, Jennifer, and the remaining cast, Angelina Tyler and Tyson Fox, attend a birthday party for Roman at Milton's mansion. Ghostface attacks the group, killing Angelina, Tyson, and Jennifer while taking Gale and Dewey hostage. Ghostface contacts Sidney, and she travels to the mansion. Kincaid follows but is knocked unconscious by Ghostface. Sidney is lured to a secret screening room where Ghostface appears and reveals himself to be Roman. Roman explains that he is Sidney's half-brother and the product of Maureen's sexual assault. Four years prior, he tracked Maureen down, only for her to reject him. Roman began stalking her and filming the men she philandered with. He showed Billy Loomis footage of his father with Maureen, setting off the string of murders in Woodsboro. When he discovered the fame Sidney attracted due to those events, Roman snapped and lured her out of hiding, planning to kill her and frame her for his murders. After Roman reveals a bound Milton and slits his throat, Sidney furiously denounces his explanation as nothing more than deflection to hide his selfish motivations. Roman suffers a mental breakdown and attacks, and after a ferocious fight, Sidney ultimately outsmarts Roman and repeatedly stabs him. As Dewey and Gale arrive, Roman rises and tries to attack once more but is finally killed when Dewey shoots him in the head. Later at Sidney's house, Dewey proposes to Gale, who accepts. Sidney returns from a walk and leaves her previously alarmed front gates open. As she joins Gale, Dewey and Kincaid to watch a movie, a wind blows her front door open, but she ignores it. == Cast ==

Development Scream 3 was released over two years after Scream 2, with a budget of $40million, a significant increase over the budgets of Scream at $15million Beltrami continued to incorporate a heavy vocal orchestra throughout the score as he had with the previous films. There was consideration that Beltrami was forced to hire multiple orchestrators to complete the score to meet the film's deadline. Beltrami took inspiration from other composers for the score, again incorporating excerpts of the score to Broken Arrow by Hans Zimmer in the track "Sid Wears a Dress". == Reception ==

Scream 3 held its premiere on February 3, 2000, at the AMC Avco theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, California It went on to gross $89.1million in the United States and Canada, and $72.7million in other territories, for a world lifetime gross of $161.8million. On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of B on an A+ to F scale. Time Out London was particularly critical of the film, calling the film's metafiction commentary a poor imitation of Craven's own horror film ''Wes Craven's New Nightmare'' (1994). In 2019, the film's editor, Patrick Lussier, discussed those particular themes and Wes Craven's approach to them, saying of Henriksen's character: "Wes, I think, was very interested in that character as not necessarily the villain—he certainly is a villain—but as a catalyst for the villain's motivation. He's really the spark for the events, or retconned that he is the spark for the events, in the entire series." In 2020, Adam White wrote that the film was "an angry indictment of sexual misconduct in Hollywood, predatory men and the casting couch". He noted several instances of "transactional sex" within the film, including the characters Jennifer and Angelina both making references to having sex with filmmakers in order to secure roles in the fictional Stab film, and Carrie Fisher in a cameo role (as a lookalike of Fisher herself) who claims that the role of Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise was won by "the one who [slept] with George Lucas". White also noted that Rose McGowan, who appeared in the first Scream film, later accused Weinstein of raping her in a hotel room a year after the film was released. Writing for SyFy Wire, Emma Fraser commented that throughout the series, the late Maureen is "slut-shamed" and "victim-blamed". Fraser also lamented the film's lack of exploration of these themes, stating that the film "could have been a fascinating look at the crimes of this industry and the relationship horror has with sex". Filmyard sublicensed the home media rights for several Dimension/Miramax titles to Lionsgate Films. Scream 3 was released on the Blu-ray Disc format on March 29, 2011, alongside Scream, and Scream 2, two weeks prior to the release of Scream 4, by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, hosting the films in 1080p high definition and including audio commentary, theatrical trailers and behind-the-scenes footage for each respective film. In April 2020, beIN sold a 49% stake in Miramax to ViacomCBS (now known as Paramount Skydance). This deal gave Paramount worldwide distribution rights to the entire Miramax library and the pre–October 2005 Dimension library, and the rights to release future projects based on Dimension or Miramax film properties, with the company subsequently distributing several new Scream films in the 2020s. Paramount later included Scream 3 on a collection titled Paramount Scares, which included other horror films they owned, in addition to making Scream 3 available on their streaming service Paramount+. The film was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 3, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. The film grossed $1.5 million in Blu-ray home sales. == Notes ==