New Resident Evil Movie Projected for Franchise-Record Opening Weekend
The next Resident Evil film is tracking toward the biggest opening weekend in the franchise's history, with box-office analysts projecting a North American debut between US$40 million and US$50 million.
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil, scheduled to reach theatres on September 17, would nearly double the $26.6 million opening weekend posted by 2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife — the franchise's previous best domestic launch — if it lands within that range. The projection comes from Box Office Pro, the official publication of the National Association of Theater Owners, which publishes long-range forecasts that it revisits and updates as a film's release date approaches. An earlier Box Office Pro forecast, published on August 21, had the film in a $30 million–$40 million range; the updated figure appeared in an August 28 forecast (Box Office Pro). IGN separately reported the $40 million–$50 million projection on August 28 (IGN).
Cregger, whose 2025 film Weapons opened to $43.5 million on its way to $270 million globally, wrote and directed the new film as an original story that draws on the Resident Evil franchise — a property he has described himself as a fan of. The film stars Austin Abrams as a courier described as an "idiot" who wanders into Raccoon City, the fictional town at the centre of the game series. The cast also includes Zach Cherry, Johnno Wilson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kali Reis. Its running time is around 95 minutes (GameSpot).
The Resident Evil film franchise has grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide across seven theatrical releases since 2002, though its commercial performance has swung widely. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017) leads the franchise with $312.2 million globally, followed by Afterlife (2010) at $300.2 million and Retribution (2012) at $240 million. At the other end, 2021's Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City — a reboot unconnected to the earlier Milla Jovovich-led series — managed only $42 million across its entire theatrical run.
A $40 million–$50 million opening would put Cregger's film ahead of every previous entry's first weekend, though matching the franchise's global totals set by the Jovovich-era films would require sustained performance in the weeks after release. Sony is distributing.
