Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil brought the popular video game franchise back to the big screen this weekend, and the film is already smashing through franchise records at the box office.
Resident Evil debuted in U.S. theaters this weekend with an estimated $60 million haul, which is by far the highest opening weekend in the entire history of Resident Evil at the movies.
The previous domestic opening weekend record holder for the franchise was the Milla Jovovich-led Resident Evil: Afterlife, which opened to $26.6 million back in 2010 at the U.S. box office.
“Putting Zach Cregger in charge of a major franchise like Resident Evil [made] something familiar feel fresh and original again,” analyst Paul Dergarabedian tells Variety. “Gen Z has also become such a major driver of the box office, and they obviously love horror movies.”
What’s particularly noteworthy here is that it was just five years ago that Sony had previously attempted to reboot the Resident Evil film franchise with director Johannes Roberts’ Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. But that film only opened to $5.3 million in the early days of the pandemic, going on to scare up just $41.9 million at the worldwide box office.
If Welcome to Raccoon City suggested that Resident Evil‘s box office prospects were no longer what they once were, Cregger’s Resident Evil course corrects and indicates that the franchise still has a bright future ahead in the world of cinema. Cregger’s new movie is likely to become the highest grossing installment in the series when all is said and done, with 2016’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter currently holding that record with its $312.2 million global haul.
The production budget for Cregger’s Resident Evil movie was a reported $75 million, no small price tag, but it will have no problem turning a profit for Sony in the weeks to come.
The reviews certainly help. Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil currently has a 95% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, 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.”
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.
Resident Evil is now playing in 3,684 theaters across the United States.
