At 96%, Cregger's Resident Evil has more than double the Rotten Tomatoes score of any Milla Jovovich film — the best of those managed 39%
Zach Cregger’s reboot sits at 96% from 80 reviews. The six Alice films scored between 18% and 39%, and Welcome to Raccoon City got 30%.
Here we go again—another crack at Resident Evil, and for once, it's not looking half-bad. Zach Cregger (yes, the bloke behind Barbarian and Weapons) is in the director's chair this time, with Austin Abrams stepping in as Bryan, your new everyman who stumbles straight into the next Raccoon City nightmare. The film lands in cinemas on 18 September 2026, and—get this—it's absolutely smashing it with the critics, at least for now.
The new Resident Evil reboot sits at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 80 reviews—the highest score for any live-action adaptation in the franchise’s history.
Rotten Tomatoes: The Numbers Game
Right now, Cregger's reboot is pulling a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes, which—if you've followed this franchise—sounds more like a fever dream than reality. That's with 80 reviews in, so unless critics start backtracking en masse, it's already left every other live-action Resident Evil in the dust. For perspective, here's what the earlier films are stuck with:
- Resident Evil (2002): 36%
- Resident Evil: Apocalypse: 18%
- Extinction: 24%
- Afterlife: 21%
- Retribution: 28%
- The Final Chapter: 39%
- Welcome to Raccoon City (2021 reboot): 30%
That six-film run fronted by Milla Jovovich (playing Alice—a character invented for the movies, if you remember) never really got much love from critics, even if they hit guilty-pleasure status with plenty of fans. 2021's Welcome to Raccoon City gave the games' characters a go but barely troubled the scorers with its own 30%.
Cregger's Take and What’s Different
This reboot is making its own lane. Cregger’s approach is full-on survival horror again, no daft superpowers, no invincible leads. Austin Abrams as Bryan is pitched as a "medical courier"—which, in Resident Evil terms, is code for ‘will stumble into a bioweapon catastrophe and spend most of the runtime legging it, probably screaming'. The plot apparently focuses on a fresh outbreak, rather than trying to stitch together 20 years of video game lore and movie contradictions.
Box Office Prospects
There's more to it than just critic scores. Box office projections are looking surprisingly optimistic as well. According to Deadline, early figures suggest the film’s headed for a $35 million domestic opening weekend. For a franchise mostly known for cult followings and mid-tier earnings lately, that's about as strong a start as anyone could've hoped for when it bows this Friday.