Sony’s Resident Evil reboot blew past expectations this weekend, opening to an estimated $60 million domestically and marking the long-running horror franchise’s biggest debut ever.
Directed by Zach Cregger, the film easily took first place and more than doubled the opening-weekend gross of any previous Resident Evil installment. It has already reached $108.3 million worldwide, giving Sony an encouraging start on a film carrying an estimated $75 million production budget.
The result also gave the domestic box office a needed jolt.
Movies in theaters combined for approximately $110.3 million this weekend, nearly 50% above the $73.7 million generated during the comparable frame last year. After two weekends in which 2026 trailed the same periods in 2025, the market is back ahead.
Through 37 weeks, 2026 domestic box office stands at approximately $7.36 billion, up 19% from $6.20 billion at the same point last year. Estimated attendance is up 13%, although admissions remain roughly 30% below the comparable period in 2019.
And Resident Evil supplied most of this weekend’s adrenaline.
‘Resident Evil’ gives the franchise new life
Cregger’s film marks the eighth live-action theatrical installment based on Capcom’s survival-horror video game franchise – but it is neither a continuation of the Milla Jovovich films nor a sequel to 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.
Instead, the movie resets the franchise with an original story that unfolds alongside events from the Resident Evil 2 game.
Austin Abrams stars as Bryan, a medical courier whose assignment takes him into Raccoon City just as a viral outbreak begins turning the population into zombies and other infected creatures.
Making Bryan an ordinary, frightened courier rather than a trained fighter gives the movie a different dynamic from the earlier films. Cregger structures the story almost like a succession of increasingly dangerous video-game levels, with the film kicking into survival mode only minutes after it begins.
The supporting cast includes Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser and Johnno Wilson.
Critical reaction has been unusually strong for the franchise. Screendollars reports the film at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics and 91% among verified audiences, comfortably above the reception for any previous live-action Resident Evil movie.
The $60 million debut also dwarfs the franchise’s previous unadjusted opening record, the $26.7 million earned by Resident Evil: Afterlife in 2010.
That film remains the franchise’s global box-office leader at $300.2 million worldwide, making it the obvious commercial target for Sony’s reboot.
For now, Cregger’s version is off to a considerably faster start.
‘Practical Magic 2’ takes a hard second-weekend fall
Warner Bros.’ Practical Magic 2 dropped to second place with $12.2 million, down 59% from its $30 million debut.
The sequel has now earned $50 million domestically and $76.8 million worldwide after 10 days.
That decline is steeper than the original Practical Magic, which fell just 33% during its second weekend in 1998.
With a reported $75 million production budget, the sequel still has ground to make up. Screendollars estimates the film would need approximately $188 million worldwide to reach theatrical profitability.
Its opening confirmed that affection for Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s witchy franchise remains. The question now is whether the sequel can display the kind of staying power that helped turn the original into a cult favorite.
Spider-Man officially takes the domestic crown
In its eighth weekend, Spider-Man: Brand New Day continued its record-breaking run with another $6.5 million, good enough for third place.
The Sony blockbuster has now earned roughly $944 million domestically and $2.48 billion worldwide.
More importantly, it has officially passed Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its $936.7 million domestic haul to become the highest-grossing movie ever at the North American box office in nominal dollars.
The next milestone is $1 billion domestic, though that now appears difficult during the film’s initial theatrical run. Screendollars projects the film could finish somewhere around $964 million unless Sony eventually brings it back to theaters.
Given how close that would leave it to the billion-dollar threshold, a future rerelease would hardly be surprising.
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‘The Odyssey’ keeps rewriting Nolan’s record book
Universal’s The Odyssey added $4.9 million in its tenth weekend, bringing Christopher Nolan’s epic to $609.8 million domestic and $1.721 billion worldwide.
Together, The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day have generated approximately $1.554 billion domestically, making them the highest-grossing one-two movie combination in a single calendar year.
That surpasses 2019’s pairing of Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King, which combined for $1.402 billion domestically.
For Nolan, The Odyssey is now firmly his biggest commercial success.
‘Coyote vs. Acme’ continues its improbable comeback
Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote vs. Acme rounded out the top five with $4.5 million, dropping only 30% in its fourth weekend.
The once-shelved Warner Bros. film has reached $54.8 million domestically after 24 days.
Screendollars projects a final domestic total near $62 million and approximately $92 million worldwide.
Whatever the final accounting looks like, the film has already become an unusual Hollywood case study: a movie once destined for a tax write-off that was subsequently sold, rescued and turned into Ketchup Entertainment’s biggest theatrical release.
Weekend Top Five
The next several weeks could keep the momentum going.
Disney and Marvel return Avengers: Endgame to theaters Sept. 25 as Avengers: Endgame Encore, with additional material designed to bridge the story toward December’s Avengers: Doomsday. Universal and DreamWorks will counter with Forgotten Island.
Then comes a crowded Oct. 2 frame featuring Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger and Amazon MGM’s Verity, followed Oct. 9 by Other Mommy and Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning.
