Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ opened with a franchise high as it topped the North American box office with $60 million from 3,684 locations.
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Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ took the top spot in North American theatres in its first weekend, earning an estimated $60 million at the box office from 3,684 locations in the United States and Canada, according to studio estimates reported Sunday.
The opening marks the best start for the video game–inspired franchise, which has produced seven previous feature films dating back to 2002. The new debut also lands ahead of most of the franchise’s earlier domestic totals over their full runs, with one key exception noted in the figures: ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’ from 2010, which reached $60.1 million in its initial domestic run.
Compared with the series’ earlier performance, the new result underscores a rare breakout for a horror property, a genre that has often been characterized by steep declines after the first weekend. Industry estimates cited alongside the weekend results note that past horror hits tend to be front-loaded, even as ‘Resident Evil’ appears to have held strong enough to lead the market in its opening window.
The film stars Austin Abrams as a medical courier whose last shift of the night turns into a battle with infected creatures in Raccoon City. The character premise places him inside the franchise’s familiar setting while framing the action around the immediacy of a late-night call and the outbreak conditions that follow.
Critical reception and audience response were also highlighted in the weekend reporting. Reviews were described as overwhelmingly positive, with the film currently holding a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Exit polling figures cited in the same package showed an audience that skewed male at 66% and was largely under 35, at 75%, while the film received a B+ CinemaScore.
The commercial backdrop for the weekend included strong performances from earlier Cregger projects, used as context for why the director’s presence might resonate with moviegoers. Reporting noted that ‘Barbarian’ grossed more than $46 million on a production budget reported as under $5 million, and ‘Weapons’ made $270 million on a $38 million budget.
The reported production cost for ‘Resident Evil’ was $75 million, excluding marketing and promotional expenses. Internationally, the film earned an additional $48.3 million, bringing its global launch total to $108.3 million, according to the same studio estimates.
In the wider box office race, ‘Practical Magic 2’ finished second, dropping about 59% from its earlier weekend performance. The follow-up collected $12.2 million from 4,163 theatres across North America, and an extra $7 million from international showings lifted its running global total to $76.8 million.
Third place went to ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ which earned $6.5 million in its eighth weekend and raised its domestic total to $944.5 million. ‘The Odyssey’ added $4.9 million in its 10th weekend to place fourth, while ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ rounded out the top five with $4.5 million.
Among smaller releases, a limited-run documentary titled ‘The History of Concrete,’ created by comedian John Wilson, earned $90,000 from a single screen, identified as the IFC Center in New York. The reporting compared that performance at the venue to ‘Parasite,’ which previously made $119,407 in a single weekend at the same location.
The weekend figures also placed the results within a broader domestic trend for horror and genre films. Reporting cited estimates that horror movies this year, including ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms,’ have generated more than $1.1 billion domestically, suggesting the market has remained receptive to scare-driven programming even beyond opening weekend momentum. The final domestic list for the Friday-through-Sunday window, compiled from U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, ranked ‘Resident Evil’ at $60 million, followed by ‘Practical Magic 2’ at $12.2 million, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ at $6.5 million, ‘The Odyssey’ at $4.9 million, and ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ at $4.5 million, with additional titles rounding out the top 10.
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