Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Sets Franchise Preview Record and Surpasses Weapons

The film achieved the best preview results in the director’s career.

Zach Cregger’s new Resident Evil film earned around $8.8 million in Thursday evening previews in the United States and Canada. This is the best result in the history of the franchise, as the previous record belonged to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which grossed $1 million.

The picture also surpassed Cregger’s personal record. His previous horror movie Weapons earned $5.75 million in previews. In addition, the new Resident Evil outperformed Scream 7 at $7.8 million and Mortal Kombat 2 at $5.2 million. Among horror films, the movie’s result ranks sixth in history, trailing only It, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, It Chapter Two, The Backrooms, and Five Nights at Freddy’s.

Following the successful previews, box office projections for the opening weekend have increased. The film is now expected to collect more than $50 million in the United States and Canada by the end of Sunday, and under an especially favorable scenario, the total could reach $65 million to $70 million.

Before the release, Deadline projected the picture would bring in about $31 million outside of North America. If this estimate holds and North American earnings reach the high end of the new projection, the worldwide debut for Resident Evil will total approximately $96 million to $101 million, against a budget of $75 million excluding marketing expenses.