Horror can reset a franchise when the creative pitch is right. Sony’s new Resident Evil is testing that thesis with an opening-day number that puts the series on track for a franchise high-water mark.
The zombie reboot earned $26.3 million domestically on Friday across 3,684 screens, according to estimates reported by Variety. Rival studios expect around $55 million for the full weekend, which would make it the largest domestic debut in the video game-based franchise’s history.
The previous opening-weekend record belonged to 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife, which started with $26 million. The new film is on course to more than double that benchmark in three days.
A franchise record in reach
Zach Cregger directed and co-wrote the film with Shay Hatten. Austin Abrams leads as a medical courier caught in a zombie outbreak while making a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. Cregger’s horror credentials include Barbarian and 2025’s Weapons, the latter of which opened to $43 million and finished with $270 million globally.
Some fans were skeptical about the choice to build a new story rather than bring back established video game characters. Early reviews and word-of-mouth indicate that concern did not blunt demand. Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote that earlier franchise entries were “hyperviolent, hyperkinetic video-game zombie sludge,” while calling the new film “a sweetly executed piece of escapist trivia.”
- $26.3M opening day across 3,684 screens.
- $55M projected weekend, the franchise’s biggest domestic start.
- $26M previous opening-weekend record from 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife.
- $270M global total for Cregger’s last film, Weapons.
What the rest of the top five shows
Practical Magic 2 added $3.1 million on Friday in its second frame and is expected to take in $10.4 million for the weekend, moving its cumulative total to $48.2 million. Spider-Man: Brand New Day brought in $1.53 million on Friday, lifting its domestic gross to $944.15 million. Universal’s The Odyssey added $1.36 million on Friday for a $609.8 million domestic total.
Two other newcomers opened further down the chart. Vertical’s historical thriller The Weight took in $1.17 million across 1,504 theaters on Friday, with a projected $2.3 million weekend. GKids’ Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom opened to $540,000 across 2,173 theaters and is expected to reach about $1.4 million by Sunday.
Why this matters
For entertainment marketers and media planners, the Resident Evil result is a useful test of IP reset economics. The studio traded familiar characters for a filmmaker-driven original story inside a known property. If the weekend lands at $55 million, that bet produces a bigger opening than any previous installment—including the ones that leaned on franchise lore.
The Friday-to-weekend multiple will be the next number to watch. A heavily fan-driven Friday can still produce a strong weekend, but the second-weekend hold will reveal whether Cregger’s take is converting general audiences or mostly mobilizing the existing horror base. For buyers tracking content value across theatrical and streaming windows, that distinction shapes downstream windowing and licensing expectations.
Source: Variety
