RESIDENT EVIL (2026): Weekend Opening Breaks Franchise Records

Resident Evil is breaking records for both the franchise and the director

Zach Cregger, director of Weapons (2025) and Barbarian (2022), scores big at the box office and with critics in the latest adaptations of the Horror Game franchise Resident Evil (2026).

For the second year in a row, Cregger has ruled the fall box office. First with last yearʻs breakout hit Weapons, which opened with $64 million and went on to rake in over $270 million. Now, a year later, his adaptations of the iconic horror game series are set to overtake that, raking in over $60 million domestically and $104 million internationally. This not only breaks the combined domestic growth of both Resident Evil: Retribution (2012) and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017), which grossed $42 million and $21 million, respectively. It also outperforms the lifetime run of Creggerʻs debut film Barbarians, which generated about $46 million.

On top of that, it has the highest score on Rotten Tomatoes of any film in the franchise, currently sitting at a comfortable and certified 95% with critics, and with an audience score of 91%. With the only thing that came close is the aforementioned Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which was the final outing of the original film series, and sits at a 39% score. Without a doubt, this movie is going to be the movie everyone wants to see this fall. 

Now, you would think with a solid hit like this, Cregger is already back at work on a sequel or drafting plans for a franchise. But no, Cregger has assured that this was a one-and-done deal and doesnʻt have any plans to return to the franchise. “I have been very clear that I’m not doing that. I’m doing this, and that’s it for me.” He said in an interview with Deadline earlier this month. Saying that he doesn’t like the limitations of writing for a huge IP, and only made an exception for Resident Evil because of his personal connection to the games. “…the only reason that I think Resident Evil is OK for me to do is because I’m enthusiastic about the games and I like the story that I thought of with the games and I’m making it for me”

There is an ironic twist to this whole thing: Zach Cregger had never seen any of the Resident Evil movies before making this one. In an interview with IGN, he talked about meeting fan expectations and his experience working on a video game adaptation. He talked about wanting to bring the video gameʻs experience. “ I haven’t seen the earlier movies, because they don’t look like the Resident Evil that I love… This is not me just telling a story and slapping Resident Evil on it so I can get a budget. This is me telling a Resident Evil story.”

As of now, Cregger is spending all his time developing his next feature, The Flood. While not much is known about the project, in an interview with ScreenRant Cregger has said that it’s both sci-fi and “The most Distrubing thing I have ever done”

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