Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot is proving to be a genuine phenomenon in China. Variety reports the Constantin Film and Sony Pictures horror reboot held first place at the mainland China box office over the October 16–18 weekend, grossing RMB 62.5 million ($9.3 million) in its second full weekend, according to Artisan Gateway data.
The film has now accumulated $55.8 million in China since opening October 5 during the late stretch of the Golden Week holiday, per Gazettely. Its first full weekend (October 9–11) delivered $12.1 million — reported as the strongest debut for a Hollywood horror title in China in two years. The second-weekend hold, a modest 23% drop, suggests word of mouth is doing real work; the film carries a 7.3 rating on Douban, China's leading review platform.
The China run has global significance. Gazettely notes the film had reached $245.4 million worldwide before its China launch, and industry watchers expected the territory to push it past the $270 million earned by Cregger's previous film Weapons. With worldwide grosses now above $320 million, it has become the highest-grossing film in the Resident Evil franchise's history.
Traces of Justice held second place with $6.8 million (cume $84.6 million) and the body-swap comedy Mr. & Mrs. Pardon took third with $4.1 million. But the story of the weekend is clear: in a cooling post-holiday market, Resident Evil is the film Chinese audiences keep choosing.
The numbers are rewriting franchise history. Before this installment, no Resident Evil film had ever crossed $100 million domestically in North America — this one has, with about $103.4 million — and the worldwide total north of $320 million makes it the highest-grossing entry in the series by a wide margin. Director Zach Cregger, fresh off the success of Weapons, has now delivered two consecutive hits by trusting character and craft over franchise formula. With Douban audiences warm and repeat business strong, China's final total could still climb meaningfully.
Photo: Egzi321099, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons