Zach Cregger Does It Again: ‘Resident Evil' Is a Total Blast — and a Hit With a $60M Box Office Opening — Post Your Review!

Zach Cregger has pulled off another box office surprise. His reboot of "Resident Evil" opened to $60M domestically — That’s $108M worldwide —well past the $40–50M tracking range and, by a wide margin, the biggest debut the 24-year-old franchise has ever seen. The previous record holder, 2010's "Resident Evil: Afterlife" with Milla Jovovich, managed $26M unadjusted.

The momentum here isn't hard to explain. Cregger broke through with the cheap-and-nasty "Barbarian" in 2022, then blew past projections with "Weapons," which opened to $43M and finished with $270M worldwide against a $38M budget — plus an Oscar for Amy Madigan. He has built a considerable fanbase of moviegoers in just five years.

Sony spent $75M on this one, five years after its last swing at the material. That attempt, 2021's "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City," died on arrival with a $5.3M opening and $42 million worldwide. Cregger brought "Weapons" actor Austin Abrams along as the lead, playing a medical courier trying to survive a viral outbreak tearing through Raccoon City. Critics are on board — 96% on Rotten Tomatoes — and audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore, which for this genre is solid.

Cregger's "Resident Evil" Is the Real Deal

I'll admit I went in skeptical. This is the second reboot and the eighth movie in a franchise that has never once produced a good film. Cregger had all the goodwill in the world coming off "Barbarian" and "Weapons," and he decided to spend it on Capcom zombies. You'd think someone in his orbit would have pumped the brakes.

Nobody did, and thank god. Cregger apparently never bothered watching the Jovovich entries, but he played the games obsessively, especially the fourth one, and that's the DNA here. Gamers grumbled. He ignored all of it. The result is a 90-minute freight train. Not as ambitious as “Weapons,” but the perfect type of video game adaptation. Abrams was the strung-out kid in "Weapons"; here he's carrying an entire movie and he's magnetic doing it, charming even while he's terrified. I was not bored for a single second.

I love how “Resident Evil” gets crazier and crazier as it goes. Cregger tries to one-up himself with every setpiece, so relentlessly that the whole thing threatens to derail at any moment. That it never does is a testament to his gifts as a filmmaker: he knows when enough is enough, and the final shot pushes the goofiness exactly as far as it can go. Not high art, but high entertainment.

Cregger punishes Bryan, and it's a blast. He's alone for 90% of the film. Bryan descends through escalating levels of hell, sewer to maternity ward, exactly like a game run. The finale had my jaw dropping. I'll refrain from saying any more since some still haven't seen the film. What I'll say is this: the creatures are gorgeously revolting, Abrams has arrived, and after three straight films we can stop worrying about what Cregger picks next. Whatever it is, I'm there.

Now it's your turn. Did "Resident Evil" land for you the way it landed for me, or are you the one holdout who thinks Cregger tripped on his third outing? Where does it rank against "Barbarian" and "Weapons"? Post your review in the comments.