Film franchises tend to lose steam at a certain point, barring notable exceptions like Godzilla, a 72-year-old multimedia juggernaut that’s set to release its 36th live-action installment. It owes its enduring appeal to multiple reboots, a strategy that proved effective for another franchise that was successfully revitalized this year through a bold, risky reset. After recently hitting a box office milestone, that horror movie has now unlocked a new achievement — it just officially beat one of the greatest cinematic classics ever made.
It’s been five years since Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City rebooted the series with a lore-faithful installment, but that movie flopped hard, dashing sequel prospects. Despite the letdown, Sony Pictures and Constantin Film had faith in the intellectual property, and in 2025, attempted another course correction. Tapping breakout director Zach Cregger, the studios pivoted away from dense lore, opting instead for a standalone, claustrophobic survival nightmare. The risk has paid off, and Resident Evil became a breakout hit — grossing $60 million on debut in the US, doubling Resident Evil: Afterlife’s $27 million opening haul. It also crossed the $100 million mark domestically over the weekend, a franchise first, and has now officially made enough money to surpass the “second greatest movie of all time.”
‘Resident Evil’ Beats the Quintessential Crime Thriller Classic at the Box Office
With $138 million taken so far in the US, Resident Evil has outpaced director Fracis Ford Coppola’s quintessential crime thriller classic The Godfather‘s $136 million lifetime domestic earnings. The Godfather was a major blockbuster for its time, grossing $297,000 on opening weekend after debuting in five US theaters. It topped the US box office for 18 weeks and was the highest-grossing film of 1972, prompting Paramount Pictures to greenlight a sequel. The Godfather has long since transcended that commercial success and now charts high on all-time best movie lists — it’s second on IMDb’s top 250 after The Shawshank Redemption, and the American Film Institute also named it the second-greatest film in American cinema, after Citizen Kane.
Resident Evil may have beaten The Godfather at the domestic box office, but in terms of profitability, Coppola’s magnum opus demolishes Cregger’s horror reboot in spades. The Godfather ultimately grossed $251 million worldwide against its $7 million budget, while Resident Evil has so far earned $322 million globally, about four times its $75 million production spend. Both films are case studies of studios betting big on a director’s singular creative vision to reinvent the genre and how much they can pay off.
Zac Cregger & Francis Ford Coppola Defied Genre Expectations
The Godfather’s troubled production is well-documented — Coppola faced serious hurdles to realize his vision, including constant studio interference, behind-the-scenes mutiny, and budget constraints. He also set out to make a film that defied time-tested gangster movie tropes, departing from the moralistic “crime does not pay” lens of the previous era, and instead documented a mob boss’s ruthless, unpunished rise to power. According to Deadline, Coppola also told his crew to come up with a list of crime movie clichés, and he made sure to steer clear of these, subverting audience expectations for the genre.
Cregger helmed Resident Evil coming off the success of Weapons and Barbarian, and his reboot attempt was highly anticipated. However, he faced criticism after confirming the film would be faithful to the lore but would not feature any of the legacy characters, departing from the approach of previous installments. The proof is in the undead pudding, because Resident Evil has been overwhelmingly embraced by critics and audiences. Cregger remains ambivalent about the prospect of directing a sequel, but he hasn’t closed his doors on that either.
Release Date
September 18, 2026
Runtime
90 Minutes