Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Breaks Franchise Box Office Record Within Hours Of Debut
Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.
Resident Evil has chased down a huge box office record.
The reboot, which is the eighth live-action installment in the film franchise adapting the video game series of the same name, was helmed by Barbarian and Weapons writer-director Zach Cregger. It stars Austin Abrams as a courier who is sent to make an important delivery to a hospital in Raccoon City, only to find himself under attack from mysterious monsters. Resident Evil reviews have been glowing, earning the movie a Certified Fresh score of 96% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which marks the best score in history for the live-action franchise (the next-highest score is just 39%).
The Ultimate · Horror Quote Challenge Name That Horror Movie “They’re coming to get you, Barbara.”
☠1960s
🔪1970s
👻1980s
💀1990s
🎭2000s
01
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“I am your number one fan.”
✓ Correct! Annie Wilkes’s obsessive declaration to author Paul Sheldon in Misery — Kathy Bates won the Oscar for this role.
✗ Not quite — it’s Misery (1990). Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes delivers this line before things get very, very painful for her favorite author.
02
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“We all go a little mad sometimes.”
✓ Correct! Norman Bates’s unsettling confession in Hitchcock’s Psycho — the film that invented the slasher.
✗ Not quite — it’s Psycho (1960). Norman Bates delivers this chilling line to Marion Crane before the shower scene changes cinema forever.
03
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“Here’s Johnny!”
✓ Correct! Jack Nicholson’s terrifying ad-lib as he axes through the bathroom door in The Shining.
✗ Not quite — it’s The Shining (1980). Nicholson improvised this line while hacking through the door — Kubrick kept the cameras rolling.
04
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“They’re all gonna laugh at you!”
✓ Correct! Margaret White’s cruel warning to her daughter before prom night turns deadly in Carrie.
✗ Not quite — it’s Carrie (1976). Piper Laurie as Margaret White torments her telekinetic daughter with this prophetic warning.
05
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“One, two, Freddy’s coming for you.”
✓ Correct! The eerie children’s jump-rope rhyme that haunts the dreams of Elm Street.
✗ Not quite — it’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). The nursery rhyme warning of Freddy Krueger’s arrival. All five are iconic slashers, but only one invades your dreams.
06
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“I want to play a game.”
✓ Correct! Jigsaw’s signature greeting, delivered through his puppet Billy in Saw.
✗ Not quite — it’s Saw (2004). The Jigsaw Killer’s chilling invitation before his victims face impossible choices.
07
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“It was the boogeyman.”
✓ Correct! Laurie Strode’s terrified whisper to Dr. Loomis after surviving Michael Myers in Halloween.
✗ Not quite — it’s Halloween (1978). Laurie Strode whispers this to Dr. Loomis, who replies: “As a matter of fact, it was.”
08
Which horror movie features this iconic line?
“It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.”
✓ Correct! Buffalo Bill’s skin-crawling command to his captive in The Silence of the Lambs.
✗ Not quite — it’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Buffalo Bill delivers this disturbing line from his basement. All five films feature serial killers, but only one has this scene.
The Body Count Your Survival Score
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Per Sony Pictures Entertainment, Resident Evil earned $8.8 million at the domestic box office during Thursday previews, from screenings that began at 2:00 p.m. This marks the best preview total in history for the franchise, more than octupling the preview gross of the previous record-holder, which was 2026's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter with $1 million.
Below, see the domestic preview totals for the previous Resident Evil movies (noting that, while there are four animated installments, none of them were released in domestic theaters):
|
Title |
Domestic Previews |
|---|---|
|
Resident Evil (2002) |
N/A |
|
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) |
N/A |
|
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) |
N/A |
|
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) |
$625,000 |
|
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) |
$665,000 |
|
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) |
$1 million |
|
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) |
$935,000 |
|
Resident Evil (2026) |
$8.8 million |
This also marks the biggest domestic previews so far for Zach Cregger. His debut comedy Miss March (which he co-directed with Trevor Moore) didn't have previews, as Thursday screenings were less common prior to 2010. However, 2022's Barbarian earned $850,000 when he was still an unknown quantity in the horror genre while his 2025 follow-up Weapons earned $5.7 million. Weapons eventually rose to become the 31st highest-grossing horror movie of all time.
While preview totals are just the beginning of a movie's box office run and thus can't be used to accurately predict its ultimate box office performance, if 2026's Resident Evil has the same trajectory as Weapons (which was critically respected at roughly the same level, earning a Rotten Tomatoes score of 93%), it could eventually earn as much as $417 million globally by the end of its run. This is more than any other movie in the franchise has managed to make, as the highest-grossing so far is The Final Chapter with $314.1 million worldwide.
It's entirely possible that Zach Cregger's Resident Evil earns even more than $417 million. While Weapons was a runaway success that won star Amy Madigan an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Resident Evil could harness the writer-director's rising reputation as a horror visionary even better thanks to the fact that it is part of a pre-established franchise. This means that it is adding audiences that are enthusiastic for Cregger's work to the already robust roster of ticket buyers, which includes pre-existing fans of the Resident Evil games and movies.
The Japanese game franchise also naturally has a pre-built international audience, which could help boost the 2026 installment's international numbers to be considerably higher than those for Cregger's previous movies. However, Resident Evil's success will depend on it performing just as well on a number of other metrics, including its 3-day domestic debut, its global debut, and its week 2 drop. Horror movies often have substantial sophomore drops, but if it shows strong retention, it has the potential to break huge records down the road.
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- Release Date
- September 18, 2026
- Runtime
- 90 Minutes
- Director
- Zach Cregger
- Writers
- Shay Hatten, Zach Cregger
- Producers
- Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Miri Yoon, Robert Kulzer, Roy Lee, Zach Cregger, David Minkowski
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