Resident Evil Passes $400 Million While Clayface Loses Its Halloween Fight
Raccoon City is booming.
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil just crossed $400 million at the worldwide box office. Sony and Constantin's horror movie added $10 million around the world in its seventh weekend, bringing it to $157.3 million in the U.S. and $242.7 million internationally (Deadline).
That officially makes it the biggest Resident Evil movie ever released worldwide, and it's now the third highest-grossing horror movie ever in China, with $71.4 million there.
Here's the official trailer, in case you still haven't made the terrifying trip to Raccoon City yourself.
How big is $400 million for a horror movie?
It's an enormous number for the genre, since Resident Evil has now passed Sinners ($371.6 million), The Nun ($366 million) and Cregger's own Weapons ($270 million) worldwide (Deadline). It's only about $30 million behind The Exorcist ($430 million), and it's $600,000 away from passing Backrooms ($400.6 million).
The funny part is how worried fans were before the movie actually came out. Cregger said on The Town podcast that he was "frustrated" because so much of the pre-release talk "didn't have anything to do with the movie," and focused on things like Leon's absence and the lore (IGN). He added that he'll probably stay away from big existing franchises in the future.
Did Clayface win Halloween weekend?
Not quite, although it was extremely close, because A24's You Can See Everything, the Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim documentary about Elizabeth Holmes, reported $10.6 million for the weekend in the U.S. Warner Bros' Clayface reported $10.4 million (Deadline).
Clayface did win Halloween itself with $4.2 million on Saturday, but it dropped 57% from its opening, while You Can See Everything only dropped 43% in its third weekend. Clayface is now at $44 million in the U.S. and $83 million worldwide, compared with a reported $44 million net production budget. It also topped the global chart this weekend with $22.8 million worldwide.
What does this mean for horror at the box office?
My read is that horror is still the safest bet in theaters right now, as long as fans get a real movie out of it. Resident Evil had every reason to struggle, with fans arguing about Leon and the snow for months, and it still became the biggest movie in the series. (Turns out audiences just wanted to be scared.) Clayface is doing fine for a weird, small DC horror movie, but a documentary about Theranos beating it is a sentence nobody had on their bingo card.
Overall, it was a slow weekend, since all movies in the U.S. made an estimated $62.2 million, down 38% from last weekend, according to Deadline. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives later this month, which should finally wake things up.
Are you seeing Resident Evil again, or catching up on Clayface? Tell us below.
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Header image is an official still from Resident Evil, from Sony Pictures. In-article images are official stills from Resident Evil, from Sony Pictures, and Clayface, from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures.
