It’s a good weekend to be Zach Cregger. The director seems to be three-for-three in terms of his directorial vehicles, with Resident Evil proving to be a giant hit — outgrossing last year’s Weapons with a huge $60 million opening. That’s about $20 million more than we predicted, but what happened was that as word of mouth began to grow following the Thursday night previews, there was a major surge in business on Friday and Saturday night, allowing the movie to significantly outpace what even the most optimistic box office pundits guessed.
It more than doubled the previous highest-grossing opening in the series, Resident Evil: Afterlife, which made $26.6 million in 2010. For the record, it made more than 10 times what Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City made in its opening. Perhaps the lesson here is that rather than make cheap reboots, take a big swing with a real, proven director with a sharp take. The upside on this will be massive, with the film costing a thrifty $80 million. With a B+ CinemaScore (great for a horror film), this one is gonna have legs.
Last week’s opener, Practical Magic 2, cratered in week two, grossing just over $12 million, which is a drop of more than 59% from its underwhelming opening last weekend. With a $48 million gross, it’s clear this franchise didn’t have the appeal to modern audiences that the studio, Warner Bros., thought it did. Although, it will likely still clear a profit, which is a lot better than some of their flops this year, like The Bride, Evil Dead Wrath, and Supergirl. The worldwide total, so far, is $76.8 million.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day managed $6.5 million this weekend, which is only 23% down from last weekend. With its $944 million domestic gross the biggest in history, many now wonder whether or not the film will be the first movie ever to clear $1 billion domestically.
The Odyssey was in third place with $4.9 million, with a $609 million domestic total. It’s still being bolstered by its IMAX 70mm shows, with most theaters opting to keep it open in that format as they are still selling out around the clock. It passed $1.7 billion worldwide. Domestically, it only narrowly beat Ketchup Entertainment’s Coyote vs. Acme, which made $4.5 million for a $54 million domestic total, a nice showing for the distributor.
Angel Studios’ Runner managed $3.18 million, which was about a 54% decline from last week, with it grossing $11.99 million in total. I’m sure that’s an underwhelming number for an action flick as Angel moves into more secular films. The faith-based Daniel and the Fiery Furnace, ironically, wasn’t far behind, making $3.14 million from just over 1,500 locations.
One of the weekend’s biggest surprises is how well the 40th-anniversary re-release of The Transformers: The Movie did for Fathom, with it making a big $3.10 million.
Sadly, Vertical Entertainment’s The Weight couldn’t catch a break despite great reviews (including from us) and the combined star power of Ethan Hawke and Russell Crowe. It made $2.3 million from over 1,500 screens.
Buddy rounded out the top 10 with $1.94 million, with it now having a nice $24.85 million domestic haul. It’s actually distributor Roadside Attractions’ third-highest-grossing movie of all time, behind I Can Only Imagine and Manchester by the Sea.
We’ll be back a bit later with updated international grosses.
| # | MOVIE TITLE | DOM. GROSS $ | % DROP | DOM. TOTAL $ | INTL. GROSS $ | TOTAL $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Resident Evil | $60 M | NEW | $60 M | — | — |
| 2 | Practical Magic 2 | $12.15 M | -59 % | $50.03 M | $7 M | $89.8 M |
| 3 | Spider-Man: Brand New Day | $6.5 M | -23 % | $944.5 M | — | — |
| 4 | The Odyssey | $4.9 M | -40 % | $609 M | $16.2 M | $1.721 B |
| 5 | Coyote Vs Acme | $4.51 M | -30 % | $54.8 M | — | — |
| 6 | Runner | $3.18 M | -86 % | $11.9 M | — | — |
| 7 | Daniel and the Fiery Furnace | $3.14 M | NEW | $3.14 M | — | — |
| 8 | Transformers: The Movie | $3.1 M | NEW | $4.16 M | — | — |
| 9 | The Weight | $2.3 M | NEW | $2.3 M | — | — |
| 10 | Buddy | $1.93 M | -47 % | $24.83 M | — | — |