Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is expected to make more money at the box office on opening weekend than any other Resident Evil movie before it.
Resident Evil: Afterlife currently holds the domestic opening weekend box office record for the franchise, with $26.6 million back in 2010 (not adjusted for inflation). Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, according to Variety, is targeting $40-50 million, but some believe it could end up near $60 million.
Deadline reports Resident Evil is expected to add $31 million overseas for a global total of around $80 million. Given Sony reportedly spent $75 million producing the movie (not including marketing spend), $80 million would be a fantastic start. Cregger brings with him added interest due to his past work on breakout horror movies, including Weapons. Sony will be hoping for more of the same with Resident Evil.
Afterlife, by the way, ended up with $300 million globally from theaters, so Cregger and co certainly have their work cut out topping that. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter — the last of the Paul W. S. Anderson / Milla Jovovich Resident Evil movies — ended with $312 million globally in 2017. It is currently the highest grossing Resident Evil movie.
IGN’s Resident Evil review returned an 8/10. We said: “With a laser focus on putting its hero through the worst night of his life, Resident Evil is a simple and exciting survival horror story that benefits greatly from director Zach Cregger’s sensibilities.”
The movie’s apparent inevitable success comes despite deep-rooted skepticism from some Resident Evil fans who wanted a more faithful adaptation of the video games. Cregger himself has said he feels like he’s been on an “apology tour” while navigating this skepticism, which began when it was confirmed that his adaptation wouldn’t feature any characters from the video games, or tell any of the stories already told in the video games. Instead, Cregger has charted his own path, telling a horror story set in the world of Resident Evil that references some of the video games’ tropes.
Cregger recently told IGN’s Tom Jorgensen: “I think I was naive. I thought fans of these games, like me, would be thrilled that somebody was coming along and turning Resident Evil into a survival horror movie. I was like, ‘That’s great.’ I did not really appreciate the sentiment that, ‘We’ve been waiting forever for Leon’s story.’ And I appreciate that, and I’m sorry that’s not the story I’m bringing. I get it, I understand the frustration. I understand it so well because I haven’t seen the earlier [Resident Evil] movies, because they don’t look like the Resident Evil that I love, so how could I be frustrated with fans who have that same attitude?”
“My only hope is that they’ll see the movie regardless of their skepticism or their disappointment that I’m not telling some of the stories that the games tell so well, and they will feel seen when they do watch the movie, and they will recognize all of the love for the games that are in this movie, because it is there,” he continued.
“This is not me just telling a story and slapping Resident Evil on it so I can get a budget. This is me telling a Resident Evil story. I understand the resistance, I do, because I have it myself. It is coming from a true place of love.”
Last week, Cregger revealed he cut most of the jokes in Resident Evil, after test audiences apparently found the film “too funny.” Cregger has also revealed who he’d cast as Lady Dimitrescu if he ever got the chance.
