Resident Evil, Zach Cregger’s take on Capcom’s pride and joy, has broken several records, including Cregger’s own, as it’s on track to earn far beyond any other Resident Evil movie ever did.
In just its opening days, Deadline reports, Resident Evil has grossed between $53 and 60 million. Yesterday, on Sept. 18, the film grossed $26.3 million domestically, which is almost as much as Resident Evil: The Final Chapter earned domestically during its entire run. It’s also Cregger’s best opening to date, beating out his previous hit Weapons, which grossed $43.5 million during its first three days.
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This puts Resident Evil at the top as the best-performing film in the entire franchise. That fact isn’t so surprising, given the overall low quality of the previous so-called adaptations that were anything but. Sure, they contained a lot of characters and story beats from the games, but the movies were altogether their own thing—and not particularly great either.
The first one does continue to enjoy some cult following, though, but I’m sure it’s going to be quickly supplanted by what Cregger has managed to achieve here.
We gave the film a 7/10, praising its approach as an adaptation to truly capture how it feels to actually play Resident Evil rather than just copying its narratives 1:1. Still, it’s a bit weak in the story department overall, and the brief runtime doesn’t really allow it to do everything it could.
The effects, the pacing, and the overall vibes of the film are off the charts, though, and I’m willing to say that its first half easily counts among the most atmospheric and actually scary horror films to date.
