Resident Evil 2026 box office breaks franchise opening-weekend record
In a scene that is a far cry from Milla Jovovich's Matrix-esque fight battles and videogame stunts, the new Resident Evil flick has landed, and despite its different look, has brought in a whopping amount on the box office.
There's no one who can do dystopia like Jovovich, but this time, her mega-loved film series has debuted a different theme – which is much closer to the games than ever before.
Directed by Weapons director Zach Cregger, his reboot of the 1996 game series has been met with a resounding success after fans of the franchise were left wondering how it'd hold up to previous attempts at bringing the world to life.
But it turns out it has done better than anyone could have hoped for.
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In fact, so many people were interested in seeing this new, gritty, and freaky adaption, that it cashed in $60 million in its opening weekend, stealing the crown of having the most sales since Resident Evil: Afterlife where Jovovich's movie bagged $26 million in a 24-hour period.
It even topped the original Resident Evil in 2002, as it had collected $48.3 million internationally.
Considering Complex has just ranked the Cregger's 2026 adaptation as the number one Resident Evil movie on record, with Jovovich's first instalment falling behind in second place; it really does say something about its success.
What have people said about the reboot?
Because of the dedication to its source material, members of the film press are calling Cregger’s reboot 'a cinematic spectacle' and even 'easily among the best video game adaptations.'
That's high praise.
Tomatometer critic EJ Moreno even wrote on X: "You have to see on the biggest screen with a big crowd! A true horror blockbuster. Zach Cregger goes bigger, scarier, and at his most fun. This is how you make horror into a cinematic spectacle.”
Tomatometer critic Mark Cassidy wrote that the flick taps 'into the relentless tension of the games,' writing: “Zach Cregger has actually delivered the most faithful take yet. Very bloody, very funny, and it made me jump at least 3 times (no easy task). The fella sitting in front of me hid behind his jacket for most of the movie. Easily among the best video game adaptations I’ve seen.”
For fans, it has overtaken Jovovich's franchise, which has been beloved for decades now.
Film journalist Kellvin Chavez went on to claim: "HOLY S***!!! #ResidentEvil has its foot on the gas from the opening scene and NEVER hits the brakes. Zach Cregger delivers relentless suspense, gloriously gory action, and some seriously twisted, Thing-esque creature designs. Pure SURVIVAL HORROR and easily the best ‘Resident Evil’ movie yet. Austin Abrams is terrific. I’ll do a full review tomorrow.”
Now, it wouldn't be a game adaptation without some people within the fandom being upset by some aspects, but in comparison to the overwhelming praise, there's only a few critics out there.
For them, they weren't too keen on Cregger's lack of nods for some original characters.
Namely, the videogame characters Leon S. Kennedy or Jill Valentine.
According to the director, he wasn't 'prepared' for the response to his announcement that he was making the flick.
Speaking with the BBC, Cregger explained what has been happening since he took over the franchise adaptation.
Zach Cregger's take on the response
In the flick, Abrams plays Bryan, a courier who agrees to deliver a package to a hospital in Raccoon City.
However, as he travels to the location, a viral outbreak turns people into killer monstrous creatures.
When the trailer first dropped, people began to ask where some of the OG characters were.
To this, Cregger said he wasn't in the mind of retelling previous stories, and he wanted to create his own.
"I think I was naive," he admitted of his thought. "I think I was expecting people to be excited to see a Resident Evil movie that felt in the spirit of the games. What I was trying to do is make a movie that really honoured the experience of playing them."
Cregger says he didn't want to adapt it too closely
He went on to say that although it follows the game closely, he didn't set out to make a film that was strict about being a like-for-like retelling.
"If I had delivered a faithful retelling of one of the stories in the games, I feel like those people would probably be upset with me for that too," he said. "Because I would have messed it up somehow, inevitably. So all I can do is just tell the story that I think is going to be the very best story.
"If somebody's going to have a problem that it doesn't do exactly what they had in their mind of what a Resident Evil movie is, I can't say anything to that."
Why has Resident Evil seen box office success?
Essentially, Sony apparently paid out a whopping $75 million (£56 million) for the film that came out just five years after it attempted to reboot it previously with 2021’s flop, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
For her part, Jovovich has played Alice, a former security specialist and covert operative, in five films after her original flick about the games through the 2000s and 2010s.
But while all of them grossed in the early tens of millions, the only one that truly seemed to go big, was Resident Evil: Afterlife with $300 million globally.
In the new flick, however, Austin Abrams stars as a medical courier in Raccoon City who is thrown into the outbreak with nothing but a shotgun and two measly bullets – a cannon event in the games.
If we know gamers, it's that they appreciate when directors adapt a like-for-like.
Otherwise, it leaves some confusion over what is 'cannon' (true in the game lore) or not.
Britt Jones