Resident Evil: Afterlife put up some pretty impressive numbers over the weekend, particularly for a franchise’s fourth film. The movie wasn’t screened for critics, so there was no early buzz on the film. The $27.7M take speaks volumes about the franchises built in audience.
The film exceeded the opening weekend of Resident Evil: Extinction (the last film in the series), which made $23.7M. However, considering inflated ticket prices and 3D upcharges, it did not actually bring more people to the theater.
This morning, Milla Jovovich has confirmed that there will be a fifth film.
Good thing the movie made some money, because everything else had a positively dismal showing. Takers nabbed the number two spot with $6.1M.
Last week’s winner The American plummeted to just $5.8M, a drop of over 55%. Here is where mis-marketing a movie will come back to haunt you. The movie got horrible word of mouth, because people thought they were going to see an action movie.
The American is anything but, so understandingly audiences felt jilted and trash talked the movie.
Ironically, the marketing probably scared away the film’s true demographic-the art house crowd. After two weeks, the film has made over $26M.
Machete fared even worse, dropping 63% for $4.2M. That brings its two week tally to $20M.
Going the Distance limped across the finish line with $3.8M.
Historically, the post-labor day weekend is a bad weekend for film. Football season begins, and school is back in session.
