Resident Evil: Afterlife is the #1 movie at the Box Office, Makes 84% from 3D

by Sohrab Osati | Sep 13, 2010 | 2 comments
Sohrab Osati

Sony continued its box office domination with the release of Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D, now giving them four movies in the top ten. Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D marked the fourth release in the Resident Evil franchise while continuing the series trend of having a larger opening then its predecessor. Also what’s seemed to work out for Sony as of late is having no huge blockbuster title, but smaller budget based movies that have all done well for them.

Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D ended its first weekend as the number one movie at the box office with a $26.6 million gross on a $60 million budget. There is still no word on an international release of this movie, but I expect that to be sooner then later. Overall, this movie outdid the prior series top, Resident Evil: Extinction which opened with $23.6 million. The Resident Evil franchise itself is one of those rare breeds in which every single movie has outdone the prior one in terms of box office gross. Expect news on Resident Evil 5 soon.

Continuing its streak, last week’s number one film, Takers, has now slipped to the number two spot, putting its total to $47.6 million on a $32 million budget. Holding on firmly, The Other Guys has actually gone from number 7 to number 6 at the box office, now sitting on a $112.4 million gross. The Will Ferrell comedy had a $100 million budget. The last movie in the Sony camp is the Julia Roberts film, Eat Pray Love. The $60 million film is now coasting away with a easy $74.6 million gross and again shows another successful Sony Pictures film.

What’s really great about these movies from the standpoint of Sony is that they have all made up their budget at the box office. This means that Sony not only gets to enjoy the gross after the cost for profit, but can now easily take in all the extra revenue these movies will eventually give to their bottom line via DVD and Blu-ray. Look for Sony to finish out September with two comedies, starting with Easy A on September 17th and The Virginity Hit on September 24th.

Update:

For those who think 3D is going to be a fad, a whopping 84 percent of Afterlife’s business was from 3D presentations. The 2,062 venues showing the picture in regular 3D accounted for 74 percent, while the 141 IMAX 3D venues made up ten percent.

  1. Resident Evil: Afterlife ($26.6 million)
  2. Takers ($5.6 million)
  3. The American ($5.6 million)
  4. The Machete ($4.2 million)
  5. Going the Distance ($3.7 million)