Thanks to strong early reactions and reviews, combined with impressive teasers and trailers, it was generally expected that the new Resident Evil movie would have a solid opening weekend at the box office, but no one predicted it would do this well.
With a production budget of about $75 million, the 8th live-action Resident Evil movie opened to $60 million in North America and $48.3 million internationally, for a combined $108.3 million global opening.
It's the biggest domestic opening in franchise history, the biggest opening of Zach Cregger's career to date (surpassing Weapons), the biggest opening for an R-rated video game adaptation, and currently the highest-rated horror movie of 2026 on Rotten Tomatoes.
That's right, in just 3 days, the new Resident Evil movie has outgrossed the entire domestic run of every RE movie that's come before.
Much online discourse has been had in recent weeks about Cregger's film and the fact that it took some liberties with the source material's setting and timeline.
The fan backlash seemed to have put Cregger off the idea of wanting to make a sequel, but at a recent early fan screening prior to release, he seemed a little more open to the idea, stating that the box office would influence his decision on whether he made a sequel.
"I can’t help thinking about other places this story could go. I’ve got ideas, but this movie hasn’t even come out yet. Let’s see what happens," he stated.
Well, it's clear that the film is a box office winner; now we'll await news on the inevitable sequel and whether Cregger will be in the director's chair for Sony or some other young, up-and-coming director.
Cregger is reportedly going to make a sci-fi space film, The Flood, next with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Pictures, but after that, his dance card seems to be pretty open.
From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian) comes a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise. In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
From Columbia Pictures and Constantin Film, in association with TriStar Pictures, Resident Evil hits theatres September 18, 2026.
The cast includes Abrams (Weapons, Whalefall), Zach Cherry (Severance, Fallout), Kali Reis (True Detective, Mercy) and Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird, Richard Jewell).
This film is rated R by The Motion Picture Association for the following reasons: strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout.