Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil has done something none of its six predecessors managed: cross the $60 million line on opening weekend. Sony’s reboot pulled in an estimated $60 million domestically and $108.3 million worldwide across its first three days, the largest debut in the franchise’s 24-year history, well past the previous domestic record of $26 million set by 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife.
The number lands far above tracking estimates made before release, which had pegged the opening somewhere between $40 million and $50 million. Box office watchers point to reviews as the reason; Resident Evil currently holds a 96 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes and a B+ CinemaScore, unusually strong marks for a video game adaptation, a subgenre critics have rarely been kind to.
The film stars Austin Abrams as a courier whose delivery run strands him in a monster-infested Raccoon City, alongside Kali Reis and Paul Walter Houser as members of the Umbrella Corporation. Cregger, who built his reputation with Barbarian and Weapons, wrote the script with Shay Hatten, breaking from the games’ plot while chasing their tone and pace instead, an approach that appears to have paid off with both critics and crowds on opening weekend.
Sony has not yet announced plans for a sequel, but a debut this far ahead of forecasts tends to accelerate those conversations rather than slow them down. Resident Evil is now playing in theatres.
