Despite facing some pretty stiff competition from newcomers over the weekend, Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil held strong. So much so that the reboot of the popular survival horror franchise has already passed a pretty significant box office milestone during its second weekend of release. Brad Pitt and Chris Hansen were no match for the T-Virus.
Resident Evil pulled in an estimated $23 million domestically in its second weekend. That was good enough for second place. Cregger’s follow-up to Weapons killed it with a $60 million opening, meaning it dropped 61% in its second frame. That’s a fairly stiff drop, but nothing too extreme, especially in the realm of horror. More importantly, the movie has now surpassed the $100 million mark domestically.
Thus far, the Sony Pictures release has taken in $103.4 million domestically to go with $93 million internationally for a running global total of $196.4 million. It also has a lot of gas left in the tang. That means the studio will have a very easy time justifying the movie’s $75 million price tag. It’s an unqualified winner at this point.
The only movie that made more this weekend was Avengers: Endgame, taking the number one spot with $26 million. The re-release is teeing up Avengers: Doomsday, so that makes sense. As far as true newcomers go, Brad Pitt’s The Heart of the Beast pulled in $20 million, while A24’s Chris Hansen biopic Primetime was right on its tail with $19.1 million. The only new player on the field that struggled mightily was the animated Forgotten Island, which made a mere $12.8 million. The larger point is that none of these newcomers were able to challenge Resident Evil for the silver medal this week.
Cregger’s latest centers on Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in a non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos in Raccoon City. Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird), Kali Reis (Mercy) and Zach Cherry (Fallout) also star.
To add some further context, the highest-grossing movie in this franchise to date is 2017’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which made $314 worldwide. However, it made less than $27 million of that money in the U.S. So cregger’s take on the franchise is finally giving us a version of this series that is resonating around the globe. Or, to look it it another way, isn’t being largely ignored by American audiences.
Looking ahead, it’s about to be October. Spooky season, baby! The first horror movie to kick off the month will be the Jessica Rothe vs giant snake picture Beware Boiuna this weekend. October 9 then brings Other Mommy, with Whalefall due to arrive on October 16. Last but certainly not least is DC’s R-rated body horror movie Clayface on October 23.
