Home · Entertainment · Sep 17 archive
Resident Evil Breaks Records With $60 Million Opening Weekend
Confirmed
In Short: Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot has earned $60 million at the domestic box office, setting a new franchise record. The film, which premiered this weekend, has also achieved the franchise's best CinemaScore ever with a B+ rating.
The original Resident Evil game, launched in 1996 by Capcom on the Sony PlayStation, was a smash hit. Cregger's film follows Bryan, an original character played by Austin Abrams, who works as a courier having a very bad day.
Resident Evil's success is a significant boost for the fall box office, coming after the less robust start of Practical Magic 2 last weekend. The film's strong performance is attributed to its product quality.
The film's opening weekend saw a significant contribution from premium large format (PLF) and Imax screens, with PLFs representing 37% and Imax 16% of the weekend's total.
Cregger's Resident Evil is different from previous attempts, focusing on a single character and mission without relying on the established characters like Alice or Leon Kennedy from earlier films.
Cregger emphasized that the film is accessible to audiences regardless of their familiarity with the video game series. He stated, 'If you’ve never played a Resident Evil game, or even a video game, you’re going to be able to follow this without missing a beat.
What this adds
The film's success marks a significant improvement over previous Resident Evil adaptations, which have been uneven. This reboot is the first to achieve such a strong box office performance.
Background
A new Resident Evil film takes a simple approach to the classic video game series, focusing on one character and a single mission.
Resident Evil, also known as Biohazard in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter, and first-person games, with players typically surviving in environments inhabited by zombies and other mutated creatures.
A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons can perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket.
What's confirmed
- The original Resident Evil game, launched in 1996 by Capcom on the Sony PlayStation, was a smash hit. Cregger's film follows Bryan, an original character played by Austin Abrams, who works as a courier having a very bad day.
- Resident Evil's success is a significant boost for the fall box office, coming after the less robust start of Practical Magic 2 last weekend. The film's strong performance is attributed to its product quality.
- The film's opening weekend saw a significant contribution from premium large format (PLF) and Imax screens, with PLFs representing 37% and Imax 16% of the weekend's total.
- Cregger's Resident Evil is different from previous attempts, focusing on a single character and mission without relying on the established characters like Alice or Leon Kennedy from earlier films.
- Cregger emphasized that the film is accessible to audiences regardless of their familiarity with the video game series. He stated, 'If you’ve never played a Resident Evil game, or even a video game, you’re going to be able to follow this without missing a beat.
What's still developing
- On paper Zach Cregger and Resident Evil are the perfect unholy alliance.
- But in the lead-up to the film’s release, Cregger’s spent a lot of time defending himself against complaints he’s cashing in on the Resident Evil name.
- Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot arrives in theaters this weekend, and the social media embargo has now lifted following Tuesday's round of press screenings and the movie's world premiere.
- Incredible title drop, Austin Abrams is hilarious to watch stumble around killing zombies, 10/10 pic.twitter.com/A2QBPsMN31 Zach Cregger’s RESIDENT EVIL…..
- Resident Evil wastes very little time getting started, and once the outbreak begins, there is rarely an opportunity to breathe.
- There have been plenty of adaptations of Capcom’s famous video game series to the big screen over the years, but the new Resident Evil takes a surprisingly simple approach.
- The simplicity of that premise is exactly what makes Resident Evil work so well.
- Resident Evil is considerably more straightforward.
- For a movie with a considerably larger scale, it is almost surprising how small Resident Evil feels in the best possible way.
- SUNDAY AM: Sony /Constantin’s Resident Evil racked up a greater score at the domestic box office with a $60M opening, which as we told you all along is not only a record for the franchise (that was clear when it came on tracking three weeks ago), but also for Zach Cregger.
- Last weekend, we began to have jitters that were were headed to a slow fall after Practical Magic 2 came in at the low end of its forecast of $30M (still Sandra Bullock’s opening average of late), however, simply put, it’s just about product.
- As we told you, the Resident Evil s have a history of some great holds between their Friday/previews and Saturdays.
Sources
- BBClink
- Comicbookmovielink
- Comingsoonlink
- Deadlinelink
- Empireonlinelink
- Gamefraggerlink
- Holalink
- IGNlink
- Independentlink
- Lwlieslink
- Tech My Moneylink
- Templeofgeeklink
- Varietylink
- Fandomwirelink
- WarpBeat — background on Resident Evil Review: A Fresh Take on the Franchise link
- Wikipedia — background on Resident Evil link