'Resident Evil' Officially Becomes the Franchise's Biggest Movie After Being Removed From 1,000 Theaters

We love it when a horror smash arrives with absolutely zero fanfare. The next Zach Cregger movie was always gonna have an intrigue factor following Barbarian and Weapons, but Resident Evil seemed like a cursed property even if it's spent more than two decades turning Capcom's video game franchise into a successful enough series of movies. But did critics like them? No. So to turn that around and make a fortune? Incredible.

Cregger's Resident Evil has officially passed $380 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the highest-grossing installment in the franchise's history. The R-rated horror movie has earned approximately $153.7 million domestically, with its global total now reaching around $384.5 million. That's an extraordinary result for a movie that cost a reported $75 million to produce, and even more so considering it's leaving theaters.

The movie opened in 3,684 theaters across North America on September 18, but its latest theatrical allocation has dropped to 2,148 locations, meaning it has lost 1,536 theaters since opening. That's a reduction of approximately 41.7%, although the movie remains in wide release and continues attracting audiences more than a month after its debut.

The story follows Bryan, a medical courier whose routine assignment takes a horrifying turn when he's sent to deliver a package to a remote hospital. What should have been a straightforward journey quickly becomes a fight for survival as a deadly outbreak transforms the surrounding area into a nightmare filled with mutated creatures.

Resident Evil Has Become the Franchise's Biggest Movie

The reboot opened with an enormous $60.2 million domestically, setting a new opening-weekend record for the franchise and comfortably surpassing the previous benchmark established by Resident Evil: Afterlife in 2010. And Resident Evil hasn't just become the highest-grossing movie in the franchise's history, it's also officially Cregger's biggest box office hit to date, surpassing his previous horror successes Weapons and Barbarian.

Weapons earned approximately $270 million worldwide, while Barbarian brought in around $45 million in 2022, but with Resident Evil now comfortably beyond $360 million globally, Cregger has smashed his previous personal record, and with the movie still playing in theaters, that total could climb even higher. This is a man whose future will be well worth paying attention to, because he clearly knows what's up.

Resident Evil is playing in theaters.