As the only wide new release, “Resident Evil: Afterlife” had no trouble annihilating the box office competition Friday night.
Despite abysmal reviews, the latest “Evil” sequel opened to $10.9 million in receipts Friday. Though it will likely fall short of $30 million for the weekend, the opening performance easily eclipsed that of anything else available for moviegoers–in fact, its total Friday was bigger than the combined total of the rest of the top five.
At $10.9 million for Friday, “Afterlife” edges previous sequel “Resident Evil: Extinction,” which earned $9.6 million on its first Friday back in September 2007. Prior releases “Resident Evil: Apocalypse” and “Resident Evil” started with $9.2 million and $6.8 million in September 2004 and March 2002, respectively.
“The American,” last week’s box office winner, slid to number second with just $1.8 million in tickets Friday. It narrowly edged “Takers” ($1.8 million), “Machete” ($1.3 million) and “Going the Distance” ($1.3 million).
Returns for limited releases like “The Virginity Hit” and “Legendary” were not available at press time.