TriStar Pictures/Constantin Film/Davis Films’ Resident Evil rang up a massive $108.3M worldwide, not only the best start the franchise has ever seen, but also Zach Cregger‘s biggest start as filmmaker surpassing the $70M WW reported opening of last year’s Weapons.
In addition, the opening alone for Resident Evil beats the global final of the original 2002 movie ($102.9M) as well as the last title, the failed reboot Welcome to Raccoon City ($41.9M). Currently, 2016’s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter stands as the highest grossing title in the series with $312M (51% of that coming from China or $159.5M).
Also, get this but this zombie shoot-em up paced like Scream 7, in fact even better (that pic opened to a franchise best $63.5M and $97M worldwide. Comps to Scream 7 were iffy on Thursday night, until they became real. For a horror pic this year at the worldwide B.O., it’s the second best after Backrooms‘ $118M.
In terms of pure international debuts for a horror movie YTD, Resident Evil‘s $48.3M is the best for the genre, higher than Backrooms‘ $36.6M. Resident Evil is 66% over Weapons, 33% above A Quiet Place: Day One, and 18% ahead of Alien: Romulus on a like-for-like basis at current exchange rates.
What’s impressive is that the movie expanded its audience beyond the Milla Jovovich movies. UK at $5.8M was the top territory (in reported, 2010’s 3D charged Afterlife bowed to $2.5M there). Mexico followed at $5.6M (higher than Afterlife‘s reported $3.2M).
Metropolitan had French speaking markets, while Constantin had Germany speaking markets. France did $2.6M (higher than Final Chapter‘s reported $1M start). Germany counted $2.5M (higher than Final Chapter‘s reported $1.3M),
Other top markets were Australia ($2.6M), Spain ($2.3M), Brazil ($2.0M), Italy ($1.7M), Saudi Arabia ($1.6M), UAE ($1.4M), Indonesia ($1.4M), Malaysia ($1.3M), Taiwan ($1.2M), the Philippines ($1.2M), and India ($1.1M).
And there’s 13% of foreign markets left to go, and they’re big territories for the franchise, i.e. Thailand (Sept. 24), Japan (Oct. 9) and China (still to be dated). South Africa is opening on Sept. 23 while Central Asia is Sept. 24.
Final Chapter‘s $159.5M in the Middle Kingdom is looked at as an anomaly: Just a perfect place in time and space for a Resident Evil in regards to the types of U.S. action movies that fared well in China, in addition to the game’s popularity. Japan was the second highest territory for Final Chapter at $36.4M.
In addition today, A24’s highest grossing movie ever, Backrooms, clicked past the $400M mark at the global box office.
We’ll have more updates later.