5 Reasons Why Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Ruled The Box Office

Zach Cregger has firmly cemented himself as a modern horror master. The director behind "Barbarian" and "Weapons" made his first foray into franchise filmmaking with a reboot of "Resident Evil." It went better than anyone could have hoped, as Cregger's new cinematic take on the classic Capcom video game franchise is an instant, smash box office hit.

The new "Resident Evil" movie opened to $60.2 million domestically this past weekend. It also pulled in $48.3 million overseas, giving it a $108.5 million global opening. That's a record for the franchise. What's more, "Resident Evil: Afterlife," which opened big in 2010, was previously the highest-grossing entry in the series domestically. It made $300 million worldwide, but topped out at $60.1 million domestically. Cregger's movie has already beat that, unadjusted for inflation. Sony Pictures is undoubtedly very happy right now.

Cregger's "Resident Evil" was expected to have a record opening for the franchise, but $60 million was at the very high end of even the most optimistic projections. Cregger has once again proved he has the magic touch when it comes to modern horror.

So, what went right here? How did Sony and Constantin Film manage to so successfully reboot this long-running franchise? We're going to look at the biggest reasons why "Resident Evil" ruled the box office on its opening weekend. Let's dig in.

Horror is one of the most bulletproof genres in modern cinema and these movies don't always need critics on their side to become successful. That said, strong critical opinion never hurts. In the case of "Resident Evil," critics were very much on this movie's side. Even better? Audiences generally agreed.

Zach Cregger's reboot currently holds a 95% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, to go with a 91% audience score. Both of which are stellar. It broke the all-time record for a video game movie on Rotten Tomatoes, overtaking "Sonic the Hedgehog 3." The movie also earned a B+ CinemaScore, which is pretty darn good for a horror movie. That suggests word of mouth will be good in the coming weeks, which should prevent a major drop off in its second frame.

Cregger's movie follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in a non-stop race for survival in Raccoon City as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos. Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, and Kali Reis also star.

/Film's Chris Evangelista called "Resident Evil" a "lean, mean, gross-out machine" in his review. That may be off-putting to certain viewers, but it's precisely the sort of thing that fans of this particular franchise want to see.

The original run of "Resident Evil" movies beat the video game movie curse, delivering what would become a $1 billion franchise. In 2002 when the original Paul W.S. Anderson directed adaptation starring Milla Jovovich arrived, video game movies were still, generally speaking, trash. But these movies, for all of their relative success, were never big hits in North America. As stated before, "Afterlife" made just $60 million, or about 20% of its money, domestically. They heavily relied on overseas box office to bail them out.

It only got worse as the series wore on. 2017's "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter," which brought Alice's story to a close, made $314 million worldwide. But less than $27 million, or roughly 9% of that money, came from domestic ticket sales. In the case of Zach Cregger's reboot of the franchise, it's already over-performing in North America. This movie isn't going to have to rely on an outsized performance internationally to make its hay. That is a very good thing and something this franchise has never really had.

Granted, this one still has a long way to go to justify its $75 million price tag, but it's well on its way to becoming an unqualified hit. If word of mouth is as good as it looks like it's going to be, it should easily become the highest-grossing entry in the series globally before all's said and done. That will be because it's playing like a more typical Hollywood movie, doing robust business in the U.S. while also pulling in audiences around the world.

We're not quite in the spirit of the Halloween season yet, but it's just around the corner. That typically means that a few horror movies can thrive and "Resident Evil" is poised to be one of them. It might have made sense to drop this one in October, but Sony Pictures wisely understood that the September slate was a little light this year and there was room for the right horror movie to break out. This was the right horror movie.

For one, this upcoming weekend sees the release of "Avengers Endgame: Encore," which could give Marvel a big box office record, but likely won't take much steam away from Zach Cregger. Nor will Robert Pattinson's "Primetime," which figures to be a big awards season player but not likely a huge hit out of the gate. We actually don't get another big studio horror movie until "Other Mommy" on October 9, meaning the runway is free and clear for this video game adaptation to run the table for several weekends.

September has historically been a down month for the box office overall, but what that really means is that the right movie can capitalize. After all, Stephen King's "It" became the biggest horror hit ever with a September release. Sony absolutely got it right with the placement on the calendar this time around.

This may seem like an obvious thing to point out but it's no less a major factor when it comes to playing Monday morning quarterback with this movie's success. Put plainly, "Resident Evil" has always been tremendously popular. The original Capcom survival horror classic was released 30 years ago and paved the way for one of gaming's most enduring, beloved franchises. It certainly doesn't hurt that recent games, such as "Resident Evil: Village," are among the most beloved in the series' history.

Granted, the adaptations are another beast entirely. After the failure of Netflix's live-action TV series, we were left to wonder what would make a "Resident Evil" adaptation successful? Everyone is going to have their own opinions when it comes to answering that question. It's the nature of the beast when playing in a pre-established sandbox, one that people are very passionate about. Be that as it may, even those who have their own ideas are likely to turn up for a movie like this on opening weekend because of their love for "Resident Evil."

It's a franchise with a name that means something. People have a fondness for it. Even non-gamers of a certain age have a certain affection for the Milla Jovovich-led movies. All of this to say, in an era when Hollywood continues to mine for IP that often doesn't mean anything to modern audiences, this is a popular bit of IP that still carries meaningful weight. That goes a long way.

More than anything, Zach Cregger is the element that can't be ignored when it comes to the success of this "Resident Evil" reboot. "Barbarian," of all movies, brought Disney back atop the box office in 2022 and put him on everyone's radar. That was not a fluke, as "Weapons" was an even bigger hit, going on to win an Oscar as well. In the span of just a few years, Cregger managed to give his name meaning in the realm of cinema.

That's not to say he's on the level of Steven Spielberg or Quentin Tarantino, but people know his name now and they associate that name with quality. The fact that the guy who made two of the best horror movies of recent memory was putting his spin on a franchise that was seemingly well past its prime was undoubtedly appealing. Yes, some fans weren't happy that he didn't directly adapt any of the games. Rather, Cregger's "Resident Evil" exists alongside the video games on the timeline, taking place at the same time as "Resident Evil 2."

Still, fans who might have yelled about that online weren't loud enough to create any real-world negative impact. At the end of the day, Cregger lent his good name to this beloved franchise and the results were in line with what we've come to expect from him as a filmmaker. This only further firmed up his good name and helps to ensure that, whatever he does next, will get the benefit of the doubt from prospective ticket buyers. Cregger has the goods.

"Resident Evil" is in theaters now.