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With fall right around the corner, movie theater-goers are ready to be spooked — and Sony’s zombie horror “Resident Evil” has arrived at the perfect time.
“Resident Evil” earned $26.3 million domestically across 3,684 screens on opening day, making it far and away the No. 1 new release on Friday. By Sunday, Sony’s new take on the horror franchise is expected to make around $55 million, making it the largest debut in “Resident Evil” franchise history. (2010’s “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” previously the highest-grossing installment, made $26 million at the box office over its opening weekend.)
Based on Capcom’s popular horror video games, the film was directed by Zach Cregger — who last frightened audiences with 2025’s “Weapons” and 2022’s “Barbarian.” (“Weapons” opened to $43 million and ended its box office run with $270 million globally.) Austin Abrams takes the lead in the gory reboot co-written by Cregger and Shay Hatten as a medical courier who must contend with a zombie outbreak while making a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital.
Some die-hard fans were unsure about Cregger’s mission to create a new, original story for the reboot (and thus omit established characters from the “Resident Evil” video game universe), though it seems such concerns were for naught as early reviews and word-of-mouth for the film have been strong. While Variety’s Owen Gleiberman referred to the prior “Resident Evil” films as “hyperviolent, hyperkinetic video-game zombie sludge,” he called Cregger’s take on the IP a “sweetly executed piece of escapist trivia” that has “a quirky relatability.”
The Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock-led “Practical Magic 2” took second place on Friday, bringing in an additional $3.1 million in its second week. Over the weekend, the witchy sequel is expected to earn another $10.4 million, bringing the film’s cumulative total to $48.2 million.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” both remained in the Friday top 5. Sony’s comic book sequel landed at No. 2, bringing in another $1.53 million, while Universal’s “The Odyssey” took in an additional $ 1.36 million for a fourth-place finish. Those additions bring “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” to a staggering $944.15 million domestic gross, and “The Odyssey” to $609.8 million.
Vertical’s “The Weight,” another newcomer, pulled in around $1.17 million across 1,504 theaters on Friday, placing it fifth. Per rival estimates, the historical thriller is expected to make $2.3 million through its opening weekend. Director Padraic McKinley’s debut feature stars Ethan Hawke as a battle-scarred veteran hired to smuggle a fortune in gold across 100 miles of impenetrable wilderness. Russell Crowe also stars.
From GKids, “Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom” opened to $540,000 across 2,173 theaters on Friday, per competitor numbers. The Steve Cox and Matthew Walker-directed animated flick is expected to bring in roughly $1.4 million through the weekend. Per the logline, the film follows Shaun the Sheep (voiced by Justin Fletcher) on Halloween Eve as “excitement turns to dismay when the clumsy Farmer ruins the pumpkin patch. Shaun tries fixing it with science experiments, but things go wrong when a wild beast appears in the woods.”
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