Hopes were high among longtime fans of the video game series that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City would deliver the goods, with writer/director Johannes Roberts and many of the cast members having also spent decades playing the console classics, so they’d have been determined to pull out all of the stops.
Unfortunately, anyone who isn’t familiar with the source material or mythology has been left largely underwhelmed by the R-rated reboot, which has become the latest in a long line of studio-backed genre films to fare much better with audiences than it has with critics.
That being said, not many people turned out to see Welcome to Raccoon City in theaters this weekend, with the movie only managing to rustle up $8.8 million through its first five days in release, which is not a great start. By comparison, the previous franchise low was set by The Final Chapter in 2016, which hauled in over $13 million in a three-day frame.
One silver lining is that Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City didn’t cost an awful lot of money to make, so a sequel still can’t be ruled out, even after the faithful R-rated horror already looks as though it might be sinking without a trace having flopped from the outset.
