Film — Noozify Original — September 22, 2026

'Resident Evil' Without Leon or Jill: A Franchise-Record Opening

By Dan Chafetz

Watch the story in half a minute

Zach Cregger's Resident Evil opened this weekend with the kind of box-office result studios rarely get from a long-running property, especially one with such an inconsistent film history. The survival-horror adaptation of Capcom's decades-old video game series earned $60 million domestically over three days, easily surpassing Sony Pictures' roughly $40 million projection.

The Resident Evil games debuted on the original PlayStation in 1996. Paul W.S. Anderson brought them to theaters in 2002 with Milla Jovovich, launching five sequels that ran through 2017's The Final Chapter. The movies developed a loyal cult following, but critics often dismissed them as glossy action spectacles that borrowed the games' zombies and corporate conspiracies while losing the claustrophobic dread that defined the source material.

The 2021 reboot, Welcome to Raccoon City, tried the opposite approach, sticking much closer to the games. It failed to ignite. Cregger's film deliberately goes in another direction. Before release, he told Entertainment Weekly that it was "an entirely original story," while arguing that audiences would still recognize his voice within the Resident Evil universe. That choice became the film's biggest source of controversy.

Longtime players had obvious reasons to be skeptical. Written by Cregger and Shay Hatten, the movie discards the franchise's established characters and instead follows Bryan, a medical courier played by Austin Abrams, who becomes trapped in a viral outbreak while delivering a package to Raccoon City General Hospital. Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, and Albert Wesker are nowhere to be found. For fans who have spent three decades with those characters, that omission initially looked like a betrayal.

Cregger addressed the backlash directly. Speaking with Inverse, he called himself the "biggest worshiper" of the games and described the movie as a love letter that still follows their rules. His argument was that remaining faithful to the lore did not require retelling stories the games had already covered. As release drew closer, he told Seen on the Screen that he felt as though he had been on an "apology tour," comparing the pressure of managing fan expectations to something almost political.

Once critics saw the finished movie, several argued that abandoning the established plot was exactly what allowed Cregger to make a stronger Resident Evil adaptation. Rather than reproducing familiar characters and storylines, the film recreates the sensation of playing the games: limited ammunition, locked doors, tight spaces, and the constant uncertainty of what comes next. A widely circulated review described it as a movie about what it feels like to play Resident Evil. Variety's Owen Gleiberman put the contrast more bluntly, calling the finished film "different, and much better, than the other Resident Evil movies".

Resident Evil earned a 96 percent certified-fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Cregger's best score and the highest for a horror release in 2026. Critic Mark Cassidy praised the movie for capturing "the relentless tension of the games," while calling it "very bloody, very funny." Other critics called it "easily among the best video game adaptations".

None of that would matter without an audience. It showed up in force. The movie opened to $60 million domestically from 3,684 theaters and added another $48.3 million overseas for a $108.3 million worldwide launch, both franchise records. Anderson's 2002 original earned about $103 million worldwide during its entire theatrical run; Cregger's movie passed that figure in three days. Its opening weekend also came close to matching the full domestic lifetime gross of the former record-holder, 2010's Resident Evil: Afterlife.

Analysts have credited Cregger's growing reputation alongside the built-in audience. Box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian told the Associated Press that "Zach Cregger is a household name in the world of horror," reducing the formula to "Zach Cregger plus big franchise equals big bucks."

His recent record supports the idea. Resident Evil is Cregger's third straight horror hit after Barbarian and 2025's Weapons. The latter opened to about $43 million and grossed $270 million worldwide against a $38 million budget.

The larger lesson reaches beyond Resident Evil. Hollywood usually treats established intellectual property as something to protect, preserving recognizable characters and familiar story beats. Cregger's film suggests audiences may care less about literal fidelity than about whether a movie reproduces the emotional experience that made the original property compelling.

For Resident Evil, that experience is built around vulnerability: turning a corner with only a few bullets left, finding a locked door and having no idea what is waiting beyond it.

The success will inevitably influence other franchises debating the same choice between preservation and reinvention. Whether that approach becomes a reliable franchise strategy or remains tied to Cregger's particular strengths is still unknown.

After 30 years on screens and consoles, Resident Evil has found its most successful cinematic incarnation through a director who refused to simply reproduce the games. By changing the story while preserving the fear, rhythm, and uncertainty at the heart of the property, Cregger may have discovered what earlier adaptations missed. Sometimes the best way to honor a franchise is to understand what it makes people feel rather than simply repeat what they already know.