"Terrifying and hilarious" Resident Evil movie sets two impressive records

The new Resident Evil movie has proven to be a hit, setting two impressive records with its opening weekend box office. What's more, it's likely to set a third sometime today.

Directed by Barbarian and Weapons' Zach Cregger, the new film takes a different approach to previous movie adaptations in the franchise by telling the story of a zombie outbreak through the eyes of an ordinary guy.

After 2021's Welcome to the Raccoon City underperformed, the decision to reboot the series again five years later has paid off, with a strong $108 million worldwide opening weekend.

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It's easily the biggest opening weekend for any Resident Evil movie, as well as the biggest opening weekend that Cregger has had in his career so far.

And although it's not a record, this new movie has already made more money than both the first Resident Evil film from 2002 ($103 million) and Welcome to Raccoon City ($42 million) made during their entire cinema runs.

Movie data website The Numbers has the new Resident Evil film's US box office standing at $60 million, which is already close to being the franchise's highest-grossing film in the US.

2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife currently holds that record with $60,128,566. Cregger's film should officially overtake it when Monday's numbers are confirmed.

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The latest reboot of Capcom's veteran gaming series hasn't just been a box office hit, with critics loving it too. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a near-perfect 96% positive score from 205 reviews at the time of writing.

The Hollywood Reporter called it "a propulsive, simultaneously terrifying and hilarious thrill ride", while San Francisco Chronicle praised its "highly disciplined narrative" and The AV Club lauded its "winningly focused direction".

Digital Spy's own review reads: "Cregger has shown exactly how you should approach a video game movie. Tell the story you want, pepper it with nods that fans will love and capture the spirit of playing the game. Canon be damned, Resident Evil is a winner."

Elsewhere, the game franchise is also going from strength to strength, following on from the critical and commercial success of Resident Evil Requiem by finally announcing the much-anticipated remake of Code: Veronica.

Resident Evil is out in cinemas now.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.