Resident Evil‘s newest film adaptation has posted the biggest Resident Evil box office debut in the franchise’s history, opening to $108.3 million worldwide. The film adapts Capcom‘s survival-horror game series, which the movies have followed since 2002. Director Zach Cregger also notches the largest global opening of his career, ahead of the $70 million worldwide start of last year’s Weapons.
The debut beats the $102.9 million lifetime total of the original 2002 Resident Evil film and far outpaces the $41.9 million opening of 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City. It still trails the franchise’s biggest overall earner, 2016’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which finished its run at $312 million, over half of that from China. TriStar Pictures released the new film alongside Constantin Film and Davis Films, and it also drew in audiences beyond the six earlier movies starring Milla Jovovich.
International openings power the resident evil box office run
Overseas theaters delivered $48.3 million of the total, the strongest international start for a horror movie so far this year and ahead of Backrooms’ $36.6 million debut. The United Kingdom led all territories at $5.8 million, more than double the $2.5 million that 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife opened to there. Mexico followed at $5.6 million, also ahead of Afterlife’s $3.2 million start in that market.
France and Germany also topped the equivalent openings from Final Chapter, bringing in $2.6 million and $2.5 million respectively. Other top markets rounded out the international total:
- United Kingdom: $5.8 million
- Mexico: $5.6 million
- Australia: $2.6 million
- France: $2.6 million
- Germany: $2.5 million
- Spain: $2.3 million
- Brazil: $2.0 million
- Italy: $1.7 million
- Saudi Arabia: $1.6 million
- UAE: $1.4 million
- Indonesia: $1.4 million
- Malaysia: $1.3 million
- Taiwan: $1.2 million
- Philippines: $1.2 million
- India: $1.1 million
Key markets are still to come
About 13% of the international market has yet to open, including territories that shaped the franchise’s earlier box office runs. Thailand opens Sept. 24, Japan follows on Oct. 9, and China has not yet been dated. South Africa opens Sept. 23, with Central Asia following a day later. China contributed $159.5 million of Final Chapter’s $312 million total in 2016, and Japan was that film’s second-largest market at $36.4 million.
A strong year for horror at the global box office
Resident Evil’s pace resembles Scream 7, which opened to $63.5 million domestically and $97 million worldwide earlier this year. Early comparisons between the two films were uncertain heading into Thursday preview screenings, but the final numbers put Resident Evil ahead on a worldwide basis. Among this year’s horror releases, only A24’s Backrooms, which opened to $118 million worldwide and has since crossed $400 million globally, posted a bigger start.
The result is a rare instance of a Resident Evil box office run outperforming both its own back catalog and most of the genre around it in the same year. With Thailand, Japan, South Africa, Central Asia and China still to report, distributors expect the global total to keep climbing through October.