It’s clear that most movie pundits were expecting Resident Evil: The Final Chapter to be a hit. After all, Paul W.S. Anderson’s latest zombie flick is the sixth movie in a series that has been going strong since the first movie debuted back in 2002, with audiences worldwide enjoying actress Mila Jovovich’s athletic moves onscreen in her ongoing fictional war against the evil Umbrella Corporation.
But these movies never made as much money in the US as they did overseas, as the highest-grossing movie in the series Resident Evil: Afterlife made a massive $296 million US dollars worldwide, but only $60 million of that was made at the domestic box office according to Forbes. And things don’t appear to be different in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’s case, as even though the film has grossed more than $300 million to date according to boxofficemojo.com, only about $26 million of that was made in US theatres.
The movie is currently being a big hit in China, though, having grossed more than $94 million in its opening weekend in the Land of the Great Wall according to The Hollywood Reporter, way more than what Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed movie made in the same Friday to Sunday period ($17 million).
These are certainly impressive numbers, and proof of the enduring popularity of director Paul W.S. Anderson’s zombie movies, which continue to be a hit with audiences. Despite this, the director has already announced that he won’t be making anymore Resident Evil films, even though it’s clear he has left a movie legacy which will be remembered for a long time to come.
And Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’s success in China echoes that of another video game movie, as Warcraft also made a ton of money in the Oriental country last year, becoming the top-grossing video game movie of all time. But if this new Resident Evil movie’s success continues in the Asian country, it might yet take Warcraft’s throne to become the most successful video game movie of all time.
It’s no doubt a great thing, though, that video game movies like these continue to be successful, proving video gaming has become more of a mainstream pastime these days, even if no video game movie to date has succeeded in beating the dreaded video game movie curse. So we are still waiting for that video game film that turns out to be an unreserved critical and commercial success…
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Screen Gems)