Marlon Wayans Fires Back at Critics Over ‘Scary Movie 6’ Reviews, Calling ‘White Chicks’ and His Films Timeless Classics

The Wayans Brothers have never exactly been critics’ darlings, and Marlon Wayans has made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of changing that. With ‘Scary Movie 6’ landing in theaters on June 5 as the franchise’s first entry in 13 years, the comedy legend came ready to take the conversation surrounding its Rotten Tomatoes reception head-on, turning the discourse into a celebration of his entire filmography.

The ‘Scary Movie‘ franchise has earned nearly $900 million worldwide across its run, with the first film alone grossing over $270 million globally, making it one of the most commercially successful comedy series in Hollywood history. That commercial loyalty from audiences has always existed in sharp contrast to critical opinion, a tension that runs deep across the Wayans catalog and one that Marlon is now calling out more directly than ever.

The spark this time came when Wayans took to social media to share a post pointing to his films’ Rotten Tomatoes scores alongside a pointed statement: “We don’t make movies for the critics, we make movies for the people who want to laugh and have fun. White Chicks has a 15% on Rotten Tomatoes and it was an amazing job.

All these movies are classics.” The post was accompanied by a screenshot of the ‘Scary Movie’ Rotten Tomatoes page, where the film sits at a 27% Tomatometer score, while its audience score tells a very different story, sitting at 70% based on over 1,000 verified ratings.

‘White Chicks,’ directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans, holds a 15% Rotten Tomatoes score, with the site’s consensus labeling it a “scattershot comedy that’s silly and obvious.” Despite that, the film has since been regarded as a cult classic, with many fans demanding a sequel. The buddy-cop flick brought in roughly $113.1 million at the box office on just a $37 million budget, a commercial triumph that critics largely failed to predict.

This is not the first time Wayans has gone to bat for his films against the critical establishment. When his Jordan Peele-produced horror-thriller ‘Him’ received a disappointing score on Rotten Tomatoes last year, Wayans shared Rotten Tomatoes scores for several of his past films, making the case that a majority of his cult classics have received major reappraisal throughout the years since their releases.

In that post, he wrote that “some movies are ahead of the curve” and that “innovation is not always embraced and art is to be interpreted and it’s subjective,” before urging fans to go see the film for themselves rather than rely on any outside opinion.

Fan response in the comments largely backed Wayans up, with one writing that “White Chicks is an unmatched cinematic masterpiece that people will still be talking about in 50 years,” and another acknowledging that while the disrespect to ‘White Chicks’ is staggering, ‘Scary Movie 6’ still had genuine problems.

The divide between popular enthusiasm and critical reception has become almost a defining feature of the Wayans brand at this point, one that Marlon is clearly leaning into rather than shying away from.

Despite the rough reviews, ‘Scary Movie’ opened to a $56 million debut at the domestic box office, earning a 71% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It seems audiences are, once again, voting with their wallets and their laughs rather than their Tomatometers. Whether you think critics have always missed the point of Wayans comedy or whether you think the scores are deserved, the question of where ‘White Chicks’ truly belongs in the comedy canon is one worth debating in the comments.