Resident Evil Is Zach Cregger's Third #1 Horror Movie In A Row Thanks To Record-Shattering 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 is already a runaway success at the box office.
2026's Resident Evil, which is the eighth live-action adaptation of the Japanese video game series of the same name, was directed and co-written by Zach Cregger, a comedy filmmaker who spontaneously became a horror auteur with the success of his 2022 horror hit Barbarian and his Oscar-winning 2025 follow-up Weapons. The movie stars Austin Abrams as medical courier Bryan, who finds himself stranded on the outskirts of Raccoon City in a desperate fight for survival against a mutant menace that has overtaken the area. The supporting cast includes Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, and Zach Cherry.
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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Sony Pictures Entertainment has now announced that, as of Sunday morning, Resident Evil is projected to earn a 3-day total of $60 million (rising even higher than Saturday's $53-55 million projections) at the domestic box office by the end of its opening weekend. It is projected to debut at No. 1, easily pushing the previous weekend's No. 1 movie, the legacy sequel Practical Magic 2, down to No. 2.
This means that Zach Cregger has earned his third No. 1 horror movie in a row after Barbarian did so with $10.5 million and Weapons followed its lead with a significantly better $43.5 million.
In addition to earning the best domestic debut for a Zach Cregger movie, Resident Evil has debuted with the best domestic opening weekend of the entire franchise. It has more than doubled the franchise's previous high, which was the $26.6 million debut of 2010's Afterlife. In fact, its debut has already outgrossed the entire $41.9 million global run of the franchise's 2021 reboot Welcome to Raccoon City.
Below, see a breakdown of the domestic debuts and overall box office performance of every previous live-action installment in the Resident Evil franchise (while there have been four animated features in the franchise, none of them have played in domestic theaters):
|
Title |
Domestic Debut |
Domestic Total |
Worldwide Total |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Resident Evil (2002) |
$17.7 million |
$40.1 million |
$103 million |
|
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) |
$23 million |
$51.2 million |
$129.3 million |
|
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) |
$23.7 million |
$50.6 million |
$147.7 million |
|
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) |
$26.6 million |
$60.1 million |
$300.2 million |
|
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) |
$21 million |
$42.3 million |
$240.1 million |
|
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) |
$13.6 million |
$26.8 million |
$312.2 million |
|
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021) |
$5.3 million |
$17 million |
$41.9 million |
|
Resident Evil (2026) |
$60 million |
TBD |
TBD |
This is an excellent start for the movie, which boasts an unusually large budget for a horror feature. It reportedly cost $75 million, which is triple the amount that was spent on the $25 million flop Welcome to Raccoon City. However, it so far seems to have been worth the risk.
While its budget could place its estimated break-even point as high as $188 million, the precedent set by the previous movies that debuted above $10 million could mean that the movie is on track to gross between $300 and $600 million. It could ultimately gross even higher for two reasons.
The first is that it's a domestic success. The previous movies all relied almost entirely on international grosses (to the point that the 2026 movie has already outgrossed all but one previous installment on the domestic chart), so this high domestic result could push it into uncharted waters for the franchise. The second is that the movie is well-reviewed, earning the best Rotten Tomatoes score for a live-action Resident Evil by a wide margin with its Certified Fresh 95%. Both of these factors could give it an unprecedented boost.
It remains to be seen if the director will continue his box office hot streak after Resident Evil. The first upcoming Zach Cregger movie is The Flood, a 2028 sci-fi movie that sees him dabbling with a genre in which he is less of a known quantity. That is being followed by the Weapons prequel Gladys. While it is unclear if Cregger will officially be directing that movie, if he does, it has a chance of capturing the core audience for his 2025 hit and opening at No. 1.
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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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