LEVELING UP

Horror Movie Reboot Smashes Franchise Box Office Record

The horror video game staple has returned to the silver screen with a bang.

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot has made franchise history at the box office. The Weapons and Barbarian director’s take on the horror video game series raked in $60 million in its opening weekend—the largest debut in a franchise that first hit the big screen in 2002, according to Variety. The horror flick also pulled in $48.3 million internationally for a global total of $108.3 million. The zombie horror series follows medical courier Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, whose midnight delivery goes awry and gradually turns into an existential nightmare amid a grotesque viral outbreak in Raccoon City. The previous record holder in the franchise was 2010’s Resident Evil: Afterlife, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich as the genetically altered survivor, Alice. “Putting Zach Cregger in charge of a major franchise like Resident Evil [made] something familiar feel fresh and original again,” box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told Variety. “Gen Z has also become such a major driver of the box office, and they obviously love horror movies.” The video game series began in 1996, with its first film adaptation releasing six years later.