Last Updated on January 29, 2026 by Angel Melanson
The good news? Silent Hill fans had a new movie based on the beloved video game series in theaters for the first time in well over a decade this past weekend. The bad news? The movie was Return to Silent Hill, which was savaged by critics and roundly rejected by moviegoers in North America. However, the movie managed to escape death all the same, thanks to a surprise turnout overseas.
See also: You Can Now RETURN TO SILENT HILL With Cineverse’s Alternate Reality Horror Game
Released by Cineverse, Return to Silent Hill made just $3.2 million domestically over the weekend against a reported $23 million budget. That was only good enough for seventh place on the charts. Granted, the winter storm ravaging the U.S. didn't help matters any. Be that as it may, it's not a good start, to put it lightly, especially with Sam Raimi’s Send Help and Markiplier’s Iron Lung opening this upcoming weekend. However, the video game adaptation found a whole lot of internationally, bringing in $16 million overseas, including a hefty $9.3 million in China. That gives the movie a $19.3 million global start.
While that’s not enough to set the world on fire, it’s just enough to save this movie from becoming an unfortunate flop. The downside, as mentioned, is that critics were not kind to it and audiences who did see it have not, on the whole, had a favorable response. Every movie has its fans but this isn’t what Konami or director Christophe Gans had in mind, to be certain. Especially considering that Gans directed the first Silent Hill movie, which certainly has its fans.
Return to Silent Hill centers on James (Jeremy Irvine) who receives a mysterious letter from his lost love Mary (Hannah Emily Anderson) and is drawn to Silent Hill. This once-familiar town is now consumed by darkness. As James searches for Mary, he faces monstrous creatures and uncovers a terrifying truth. It is based on the much-beloved Silent Hill 2 video game from Konami.
For Cineverse, it’s a near-miss as the distributor has been seeking a theatrical hit beyond the Terrifier franchise. Sad to say, last year’s Toxic Avenger remake wasn’t it. In this case, China essentially bailed the movie out, which rarely happens these days. It’s likely to fall off a cliff in the U.S. so, to profit in theaters, it will need staying power abroad. At the very least, it should do just well enough to profit in the long run once VOD and other revenue streams are factored in.
For Koami, it’s a tough break. They’ve revived the franchise on the video game, with Silent Hill F earning heaps of praise. This movie was intended to be part of a great comeback for the series. While it won’t lose a lot of money or anything like that, the reception is bad enough that it’s probably going to kill the movies again for a little while. Or, at the very least, necessitate another reboot.
Return to Silent Hill is in theaters now.
