Zach Cregger's 'Resident Evil' Reboot Opens to Franchise-Record Numbers and Rare Critical Praise

A franchise that had spent two decades as a punchline among film critics turned into one of the best-reviewed studio releases of the year on Friday, as Sony Pictures opened Zach Cregger's ground-up reboot of "Resident Evil" in theaters nationwide. The film, which drew $8.8 million in Thursday preview screenings, is on pace for the strongest opening in the eight-film series' 24-year history and carries the kind of critical reception long thought impossible for an adaptation of the Capcom video game franchise.

What happened

"Resident Evil" opened in roughly 3,000 domestic theaters on Friday after Thursday night previews, marking the culmination of an 18-month development process that began after the franchise's previous attempt at a relaunch collapsed commercially and critically. Cregger, the writer-director of "Barbarian" and "Weapons," was hired in January 2025 to build an original story set on the periphery of the games' timeline rather than retell the plot of any single title, and Sony beat out Warner Bros., Netflix and other studios for distribution rights that March.

The film follows Bryan, an ordinary medical courier played by Austin Abrams, who is dispatched to deliver a package to Raccoon General Hospital and instead spends one night fighting his way through a viral outbreak that has turned the hospital's patients and staff into infected monsters. Zach Cherry and Paul Walter Hauser play Umbrella Corporation scientists, Kali Reis plays an Umbrella enforcer, and Sara Paxton, who is married to Cregger, voices Bryan's girlfriend Michelle. Shot in Prague for IMAX release, the film also runs in 4DX and ScreenX formats, according to its official studio site, which posted the theatrical trailer ahead of the release.

The numbers

Sony's own tracking, cited widely in trade coverage, projects a domestic opening weekend of $40 million to $50 million against a reported production budget of roughly $75 million, with distributors forecasting a global opening near $80 million once international grosses are added in. That would eclipse every previous domestic opening in the franchise; the prior high-water mark for previews belonged to 2010's "Resident Evil: Afterlife," which took in $5.7 million on its first night before finishing its opening weekend at $43 million, according to Movieweb's box office analysis.

The reviews have been just as striking a break from the franchise's history. The film holds a 96 percent approval rating from 169 critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 92 percent audience score, and an 81 on Metacritic, both the highest marks ever recorded for a film based on a video game. By contrast, the six Milla Jovovich-led entries released between 2002 and 2016 scored between 18 percent and 37 percent with critics despite grossing more than $1.1 billion worldwide, and the franchise's most recent attempt at reinvention, 2021's "Welcome to Raccoon City," managed only a 30 percent critics' score and $41.85 million worldwide against a $25 million budget, a turnaround Gulf News described as the panned franchise finally winning over critics.

How we got here

Sony's decision to hand the franchise to Cregger followed the box-office and critical failure of "Welcome to Raccoon City," which had tried to adapt the games more literally, hewing to characters and set pieces familiar to longtime players. Cregger has said he took the opposite approach, treating the games' setting as a backdrop for an original narrative rather than attempting to dramatize existing game plots.

"I think the games are really amazing at dread," Cregger told SYFY Wire in an interview published the day before the film's release, describing how the games "spend almost more energy in the negative space between the adrenaline, where you're just creeping through a terrifying environment, and you have two bullets." He said that sense of dread and resource scarcity, more than any specific character or plot point, was what he wanted audiences to feel. Sony's PlayStation Productions arm, which holds ties to Capcom's game division, worked alongside the studio on the adaptation.

Who is affected

The opening is being closely watched inside the industry as a test of whether video game adaptations, long a graveyard for studio investment, can sustain both critical respect and commercial scale simultaneously. It also raises Cregger's standing considerably; "Weapons," his previous film, grossed roughly $270 million worldwide on a $40 million budget, and a strong "Resident Evil" opening would give him three consecutive commercial and critical successes. For Sony, which lists the film across its international theatrical slate, it represents a bet that a $75 million theatrical horror title, rather than a streaming release, can still draw a mass audience during a September that has otherwise been a slow month at the domestic box office.

Longtime fans of the games have had a more divided reaction. Because the film sidesteps established protagonists such as Leon Kennedy and Alice in favor of an original character, some players expressed frustration in the run-up to release that the movie would not adapt a specific game's story.

"I know if you're going to wade into a video game IP, you're not going to get out unscathed," Cregger said of the fan response, according to an interview with TheWrap.

Reaction and what happens next

Critics who saw the film ahead of release were largely effusive. Frank Scheck, reviewing for The Hollywood Reporter, wrote that Cregger "crafted a propulsive, simultaneously terrifying and hilarious thrill ride that showcases both his cinematic chops and perverse sense of humor." Variety's Jordan Moreau called it among the best video game adaptations made to date, and trade reviewers largely agreed that Cregger had found a way to honor the games' tone without leaning on nostalgia for specific characters.

Sony will report final three-day domestic figures on Sunday, with the studio's own projections suggesting the film could clear $50 million by the close of the weekend, a number that would put it ahead of every prior "Resident Evil" title's opening in inflation-unadjusted terms. Cregger, for his part, has said this is likely his only turn with the franchise. He is already moving on to "The Flood," an Amblin-produced science-fiction feature backed by Steven Spielberg's production company that he has described as his most disturbing project yet, with production expected to begin in early 2027. A "Weapons" prequel focused on the character Gladys, which Cregger is producing but not directing, is also in the pipeline at Warner Bros. Whether Sony pursues a sequel to "Resident Evil" without him will likely depend on how the film's box office holds up in the weeks ahead, after an opening that has already rewritten the franchise's critical reputation in a single night.