‘Resident Evil’ Star’s New Survival Thriller Officially Removed From 2,600 Theaters in 3 Weeks

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema. 

The record-breaking success of the new Resident Evil reboot didn’t have a spillover effect on star Austin Abrams‘ other survival thriller, which was released only a few weeks later. The new movie failed to recoup its reported budget at the box office, and has now suffered a massive drop in its theater count after a month of release. Also starring Josh Brolin, the movie generated significant pre-release buzz for its premise — a diver gets sucked alive into the belly of a whale — but the enthusiasm didn’t translate into box-office results.

The survival thriller debuted theatrically on October 16, roughly a month after the Resident Evil reboot. Directed by Zach Cregger, the new Resident Evil defied expectations to deliver a franchise-record $400 million haul at the global box office. The movie also delivered a “Certified Fresh” 96% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes — a record for video game adaptations.

Abrams’ follow-up film, directed by Brian Duffield, now holds a 71% critics’ score and an 82% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Duffield previously directed the acclaimed dark comedy Spontaneous, which holds a 96% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the wordless sci-fi thriller No One Will Save You, which holds an 82% score. As a writer, Duffield has penned movies such as Love and Monsters, which is sitting at a 94% score, and The Babysitter, which has a 70% score on the aggregator.

Four franchises, four completely different ways of getting underneath
your skin. This is the one built out of your particular fear, why it works so well on you, and what
it would leave behind.

Your nightmare does not wait outside the door. It waits for you
to close your eyes, which you are going to have to do eventually, because nobody has ever
won that particular argument.

• Freddy is horror’s cruellest idea: a threat that lives in the one place you cannot
  guard, cannot lock, and cannot avoid forever.
• You are the one who is fine during the film and wide awake at two in the morning. Your
  own head is where this does its damage.
• These films understood exhaustion as a horror engine. The kids on Elm Street do not lose
  because they are weak. They lose because they are tired.
• You can lock every door in the house. You still have to sleep.

Your nightmare is not really the doll. It is the face of the
person you tell, and the way they decide, very kindly, that you have imagined all of it.

• Chucky works precisely because he is absurd. That is the trap: the more accurately you
  describe him, the less anybody is going to believe you.
• You are the one shouting at the screen because the characters are not listening. You
  know that feeling from real life too.
• The franchise is at its best when the adults in the room are the real obstacle, and you
  have met those adults.
• By the time somebody finally believes you, you will have handled most of it on your own.

Your nightmare has your number, knows your name, and has almost
certainly been inside your house before. The worst part is that you already know them.

• Scream is the only one of these where the killer takes the mask off and turns out to be
  somebody who was at the party.
• You are the person who calls the twist out loud before it lands. You watch people the
  same way you watch films.
• The franchise made the rules of horror part of the plot, which means the survivors are
  the ones paying attention. You would be paying attention.
• Everybody is a suspect, including the person who just offered to walk you home.

Your nightmare is not really about you. It is about the people
asleep down the hall, and the feeling that whatever is here is not interested in leaving.

• The Conjuring films are domestic horror. The house, the family, the perfectly ordinary
  room that quietly stops feeling ordinary.
• Your instinct is to get everybody into one room. Your fear is protective rather than
  personal, which is rarer than it sounds.
• This is the one franchise where belief is the weapon. The people who come through it are
  the ones who are not alone and refuse to be.
• Whatever is here did not come for you. It came for the household, and you are the one
  standing in the hallway.

Here’s How Much the Survival Thriller Has Grossed at the Box Office

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