Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ Reboot Is Now Tracking for a Massive $120-150 Million Global Opening

Zach Cregger has spent the last few years quietly turning himself into one of horror’s most bankable directors, with ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Weapons’ both becoming genuine word-of-mouth hits rather than just critical darlings. That track record made him an unusual but intriguing pick to resurrect a franchise that has spent more than two decades struggling to fully cash in on its video game roots.

The ‘Resident Evil’ series has always had a strange relationship with the box office. Despite a built-in fanbase and a global audience of horror lovers, the franchise’s previous seven films topped out domestically at $26.6 million for 2010’s ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife,’ even as some entries pulled in hundreds of millions worldwide.

Cregger’s reboot looks poised to blow past all of that. According to tracking data shared by Global Box Office on social media, the film is now projected to debut between $120 million and $150 million globally next week, with pre-sales already underway in multiple countries and IMAX and other premium large-format screenings performing extremely well overseas.

That kind of global number would represent a massive leap for a franchise that has historically leaned on international audiences more than domestic ones. Domestic tracking alone has already pointed to a record-breaking opening, with early estimates from Deadline pegging the film around a 35 million dollar start before climbing as first-day sales came in stronger than expected.

Some outlets have floated even higher domestic numbers, with Boxoffice Pro reporting projections in the 40 to 50 million dollar range, which would already top every previous ‘Resident Evil’ film’s opening weekend total in a single weekend. Whatever the final domestic figure ends up being, it will comfortably eclipse the 26.7 million dollar debut that ‘Afterlife’ has held onto for over a decade.

Much of the buzz driving these numbers traces directly back to Cregger’s recent output. His last film, ‘Weapons,’ opened to 43.5 million dollars domestically and went on to gross 151.5 million dollars in North America and 270 million dollars worldwide against a modest 38 million dollar budget.

This new take on ‘Resident Evil’ stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who gets swept into a chaotic, blood-soaked survival scenario over the course of one horrifying night, with Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser rounding out the supporting cast. Cregger co-wrote the screenplay with Shay Hatten and shot the film in Prague, setting the story within the world of the games without directly adapting any specific title from the franchise.

That creative choice has been a sticking point for some longtime fans of the games, who have pushed back against the decision to tell a completely original story rather than adapt an existing entry. Even so, the backlash doesn’t appear to be denting ticket demand in any meaningful way, based on the presale activity reported so far.

The film arrives in theaters on September 18 alongside Warner Bros.’ ‘Practical Magic 2,’ giving the fall box office season one of its biggest one-two punches in recent memory. With Sony leaning heavily into a global marketing push, including international press stops for Cregger and Abrams, the studio is clearly betting that this reboot can finally turn ‘Resident Evil’ into the box office juggernaut its built-in fanbase has always promised.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments.