Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is off to one hell of a strong start at the box office, with the film on track to have the highest grossing opening weekend in the movie franchise’s history.
Last night for the film’s Thursday night previews, Resident Evil scared up $8.8 million at the U.S. box office, which already gives it the highest Thursday night previews in series history.
Of note, this marks the 3rd biggest Thursday preview of all time for any video game movie!
Variety notes this morning, “It’s aiming to make $40 million to $50 million domestically this weekend, but some projections put it closer to $60 million due to positive reviews.”
Those positive reviews have given Resident Evil a 96% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes at this time, making it the best reviewed video game movie of all time on the platform.
Meagan Navarro writes in her rave review for Bloody Disgusting, “Zach Cregger captures the primal experience of playing the games, and it’s an absolute breathless blast.”
The production budget for Cregger’s Resident Evil was a reported $75 million, and it’s looking like the movie won’t have too much of a problem turning a profit in the coming weeks.
The Resident Evil film franchise is a billion dollar franchise at the box office, with the Milla Jovovich-led Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) holding the franchise’s box office record with $312 million worldwide. The most recent installment in the franchise, 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, finished its worldwide run with just $41.9 million in theaters.
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is now playing in 3,166 theaters nationwide.
Based on the iconic video game franchise, the film is “a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise” from the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger.
Austin Abrams (Weapons) stars as Bryan, a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in a non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
