Resident Evil Opens To Record $60m In US, Beats Franchise Record

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil has opened with $60 million in the US and Canada, giving the horror franchise its biggest domestic debut in its 24-year history.

The Sony and Constantin adaptation of the Capcom video game also delivered the biggest opening of Cregger’s career, surpassing the $43.5 million debut of his 2025 horror film Weapons.

The $60 million opening nearly matches the entire domestic run of Resident Evil: Afterlife, which previously held the franchise’s US opening record and finished with $60.1 million in 2010.

The new Resident Evil also arrives with strong reviews, earning a 96% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest rating of Cregger’s career. It is also currently the highest-rated horror film of 2026.

The film earned $26.55 million on Friday, followed by $20.25 million on Saturday and an estimated $13.2 million on Sunday, according to the latest weekend figures.

Its opening also puts the film among the biggest September debuts in the US, with its $60 million haul ranking seventh for the month.

The film’s audience was largely male, with men accounting for 66% of attendance and women 34%. Men over 25 made up the biggest demographic at 44%, while men under 25 accounted for 22%.

Gamers also turned out in significant numbers. Heavy gamers represented 36% of the audience overall, compared with 14% for 2016’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.

The film’s audience response has also been strong. It received a B+ CinemaScore, the highest grade recorded for a Resident Evil film, while PostTrak gave it a 71% definite-recommendation score among general audiences.

The new film’s strong opening follows a $8.8 million haul from Thursday previews, which had already set a franchise record.

The previous record for Resident Evil previews was held by The Final Chapter, which made about $1 million before its opening weekend in 2016.

The film’s performance also gives Sony a strong result after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has continued its run near the top of the domestic box office and has crossed $944 million in North America.

Resident Evil is directed by Cregger and is based on the Capcom video game series. The film was produced for about $75 million and is being released in premium large formats and IMAX.

The film’s strong performance has also helped lift the wider horror market. Domestic horror films have generated about $1.166 billion so far in 2026, according to Rentrak data cited in the report.

That figure has already passed the $1.163 billion generated by horror films during the whole of 2017, which was the genre’s first billion-dollar year.

The weekend’s overall domestic box office reached an estimated $110.2 million, up 28% from the previous weekend and 44% from the same weekend last year.

Resident Evil follows a new group of characters as they confront the deadly threats associated with the fictional Raccoon City. The film is a new adaptation of the game series rather than a continuation of the earlier films starring Milla Jovovich.