Zach Cregger's Resident Evil topped the North American box office with an estimated USD 60 million from 3,684 theatres, giving the long-running horror franchise its biggest opening yet. The Sony release also marked the best debut of Cregger's career, surpassing the USD 43.5 million opening of his earlier film Weapons.
The new film, the eighth theatrical instalment in the franchise, stars Austin Abrams as a medical courier whose final job takes him into Raccoon City, where he encounters the infected creatures that have long defined the Resident Evil universe. The opening also gives the franchise a significant boost after its previous theatrical entries struggled to match the scale of the series' earlier success. Interestingly, Resident Evil: Afterlife still holds a slightly higher unadjusted domestic lifetime gross of USD 60.1 million, but its opening weekend was considerably smaller.
Cregger's name appears to have been an important part of the film's positioning. The filmmaker, who previously directed Barbarian and Weapons, has developed a reputation for turning relatively contained horror films into theatrical successes.
Behind Resident Evil, Practical Magic 2 occupied second place with USD 12.2 million in its second weekend, taking its domestic total past USD 50 million. Spider-Man: Brand New Day followed with USD 6.5 million in its eighth weekend, bringing its North American total to approximately USD 944.5 million. The Tom Holland-starrer had already overtaken Star Wars: The Force Awakens earlier in the week to become the highest-grossing film in North American box-office history.
Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey added another USD 4.9 million in its 10th weekend. The Matt Damon-starrer has continued its unusually long theatrical run after becoming the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide and, more recently, crossing USD 1.677 billion to overtake Jurassic World as Universal Pictures' biggest film ever.
The weekend's numbers also underline the broader strength of horror this year. According to Rentrak figures, horror films have collectively generated more than USD 1.1 billion domestically in 2026, with titles including Obsession and Backrooms contributing to the genre's resurgence.
