Resident Evil reboot earns record US$108.3 million global opening
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil earned US$108.3 million globally in its opening weekend, the best start for any Resident Evil film. The total splits into US$60 million from the United States and US$48.3 million from international markets, according to Eurogamer.
That US result alone beat expectations. Previews brought in US$8.8 million, itself a record for the franchise, according to Deadline. Trade press had the domestic opening pegged well below the final number before the weekend began.
The opening also outpaced Cregger's previous horror film Weapons, which is cited at US$70 million. It ranks as the second-best horror opening this year, behind Backrooms at US$118 million.
History puts the start in context. The first Resident Evil film, released in 2002 and starring Milla Jovovich, made US$102.9 million in total. Cregger's reboot passed that lifetime total in three days. The high mark remains 2016's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, with a lifetime total of about US$312 million, roughly half of it from China.
The new film is a reboot, a fresh start using the same 1990s zombie video game property, as described by Variety. It does not bring back familiar game leads. Roles for series characters Leon S. Kennedy and the Redfields were rejected.
Instead, the story centres on Bryan, a medical delivery driver played by Austin Abrams. He is a courier sent with a package to a remote hospital. That trip pulls him into the outbreak at the heart of the film.
Sony Pictures lists 18 Sept as the release date for Resident Evil, according to Sony Pictures. Cregger introduced the project at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The film franchise as a whole has grossed US$1.2 billion.
What makes this stand out is the choice to start clean. No returning heroes. A new face with an ordinary job. Audiences showed up anyway, and in record numbers for this series.
