It might have been controversial at first for daring to adapt the feel of the games rather than the story and characters, but Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is a massive success. The horror flick has passed $360 million at the global box office, and is outpacing some big horror hitters.
After last weekend's $22.6 million haul, Resident Evil is now on $361.1 million worldwide, a figure that makes it the highest-grossing Resident Evil movie ever, and Cregger's biggest commercial hit. According to box office watchers, at the five weekend mark, Resident Evil is outpacing Alien: Romulus ($330 million), Backrooms ($331 million), and Obsession ($287 million).
Resident Evil could hit $400 million by the end of its run, putting it ahead of Sinners ($370.4 million), but it may struggle to overtake Backrooms and Obsession's final figures ($400.6 million and $522.8 million respectively). Both those movies had remarkable staying power in theaters, fueled by strong word of mouth. Indeed, Obsession is the fifth highest-grossing horror movie of all time (unadjusted for inflation).
Resident Evil has done particularly well in China, where $56 million has been made so far. The Resident Evil movie has proven so popular that it helped boost sales of the Resident Evil 2 remake on PS5 by 50%. It also inspired The Walking Dead star Chandler Riggs to publish a fan film take on Resident Evil 7, in a bid to work with Cregger on a sequel.
But will Cregger actually get the chance to make a follow-up, or does he even want to? In September, Cregger says he’d love to tell more stories in the Resident Evil universe, admitting he already had "ideas" about where he'd take things in Resident Evil 2.
Cregger’s take on Resident Evil is currently the highest rated video game movie adaptation of all time with critics, beating Sonic the Hedgehog 3. IGN’s 8/10 Resident Evil movie review called it “a simple and exciting survival horror story that benefits greatly from Zach Cregger’s sensibilities.”
The Super Mario Bros. movie remains the highest grossing game adaptation of all time, followed closely by its sequel and A Minecraft Movie. Of course, these family friendly movies will always have more of a chance to succeed than a movie where corpses fall from windows and splat onto a snowy street.