'Resident Evil' Poised To Reach $1 Billion Mark, Becomes Highest Grossing Game-Based Franchise

The "Resident Evil" franchise is poised to reach another milestone with the release of its seventh and final installment, "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter". After this weekend, the franchise is expected to reach the $1 billion mark, making it the highest grossing video game based franchise of all time.

The final installment premiered in Japan as early as December 23 and has performed exceedingly well in the country, raking in some $35 million. With its opening weekend in the US, the film is expected to perform with an estimated $30 million box office take, a conservative estimate, but enough to propel the franchise past the $1 billion mark when it is added to the combined performance of the previous movies amounting to $954 million globally, Deadline reported.

However, just as the box office results came in, it was reported that M. Night Shyamalan's Split dominated the weekend tills and Resident Evil only came in fourth place with $13.9 million, halving its original projection, reported GameSpot.

While traditionally, the films perform modestly in the US box office, Sony does not see much of a problem in reaching its $1 billion goal as the franchise as Resident Evil movies have consistently performed well overseas.

It can be recalled that the first movie which came out in 2002 raked in $102.4 million from a $35 million budget while the succeeding films continued to get more fans on board the exciting action packed series. The franchise was originally intended as a trilogy with "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" (2004) and "Resident Evil: Extinction" in 2007, but was jumpstarted again with the addition of "Resident Evil: Afterlife" in 2010 and "Resident Evil Retributio" in 2012.  

Early reviews for "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter" have credited lead actress Milla Jovovich for her consistent delivery for her role as Alice but critics have panned the movie for being too repetitive of its old tricks.