A 2002 film that finished with $102.9 million worldwide has just been outdone by a single weekend. Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot opened to $60 million domestically and $108.3 million worldwide, passing the original’s entire global run in three days.
It is the biggest domestic debut in the franchise’s 24-year movie history, and it more than doubles the previous opening record. Paul W.S. Anderson directed that 2002 original. His follow-ups kept the series going, with “Afterlife” earning around $300 million worldwide and “The Final Chapter” reaching $312 million in 2016. Those totals are the next benchmarks for the new film to chase.
After a stumble
Sony needed this. The last attempt at a restart, 2021’s “Welcome to Raccoon City,” finished with just $41.9 million worldwide. Against that, an opening that size looks like a rescue.
Variety credited the strong start to good reviews, word of mouth and interest in Cregger after his earlier films, “Barbarian” and “Weapons.” The new film holds a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and a B+ CinemaScore.
Games on screen, then and now
The contrast with early game adaptations is sharp. The 1993 “Super Mario Bros.” opened to $8.5 million and ended on $20.9 million in the U.S. and Canada against a reported $42 million budget. “Mortal Kombat,” another Anderson film, did better in 1995: $23.3 million opening, $70.4 million in North America and $122.1 million worldwide from a $20 million budget. The 2023 “Super Mario Bros. Movie” opened to $146.4 million domestically and went past $1.35 billion worldwide.
Studios are now looking well beyond the big names. Markiplier, real name Mark Fischbach, self-financed and distributed “Iron Lung,” based on David Szymanski’s 2022 indie horror game. It reached more than 3,000 theaters and grossed about $51.2 million worldwide on a reported $3 million budget. 20th Century Studios is developing a film of the Roblox survival game “99 Nights in the Forest,” with Josh Cooley writing and Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert producing. That game once peaked at 14.2 million concurrent players.
