Resident Evil debuts at 97% on Rotten Tomatoes — and just reset the franchise ceiling

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot arrives with the kind of number this franchise has almost never been allowed to imagine: Rotten Tomatoes’ official first-reviews page lists Resident Evil (2026) at 97% from critics as of Sept. 17, 2026. That figure is a live snapshot, not a finish line. It can rise, slide, or settle somewhere else once more notices hit. But even as a moving target, it changes the conversation around the movie before opening weekend begins.

ComicBook.com reported on Sept. 16 that the film was sitting at 96% with 75 reviews, calling out the milestone it had already cleared at that moment: the highest-rated live-action Resident Evil movie, and the highest-rated video-game movie tracked by Rotten Tomatoes then. One day later, the Rotten Tomatoes page shows the number at 97%, which makes the same point even louder. This is not merely “good for Resident Evil.” It is the first time the live-action side of the series has entered release week framed as a critical breakout instead of an apologetic genre object.

That matters because Resident Evil has always been bigger than its reviews. Paul W.S. Anderson’s long-running film cycle built a durable theatrical identity from leather, lasers, monsters, corporate rot, and Milla Jovovich’s action iconography, even as critics mostly stayed cold. The later attempts to steer closer to the games did not reset the reputation in a lasting way. For a property with this much brand recognition, the normal expectation became commercial resilience paired with critical skepticism.

Cregger’s reboot now gets to open under a different kind of pressure. The 97% score is not a Geeks & Gods review, and it should not be treated like audience consensus before audiences have fully arrived. Still, a near-perfect critics number reshapes how the film is received culturally. Instead of asking whether another Resident Evil movie can escape the curse of video-game adaptations, the question becomes whether this one can hold its place among the medium’s better screen translations once the wider review pool and paying crowd catch up.

Video-game adaptations have been in a slow credibility rebuild for years, across television and film alike. The category no longer has to argue that it can produce strong drama, premium animation, or blockbuster comfort food. But horror remains its own test. Games are built on agency, repetition, dread, and player failure; movies have to translate those feelings without letting lore become homework. A Resident Evil film earning this early level of critical enthusiasm suggests the adaptation conversation has moved beyond “faithful enough?” toward a more interesting question: can the film find a cinematic shape that honors the property’s survival-horror DNA without treating canon as a checklist?

Sony’s official materials position Resident Evil as a theatrical release opening Sept. 18, 2026. The film is directed by Zach Cregger, written by Cregger and Shay Hatten, and stars Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser. Those facts matter more than speculation. There is no box-office story yet, no audience score to weigh against critics, and no firsthand verdict from us to pretend we have filed.

For now, the story is the ceiling. Resident Evil has spent decades as a recognizable screen brand that critics rarely embraced. On the eve of release, the reboot is entering theaters with Rotten Tomatoes showing 97% — a number that may move, but has already made the franchise’s old critical baseline feel obsolete.

Update, 18 September 2026: Rotten Tomatoes' first-reviews page now lists the film at 96% from a larger critic pool, with an audience score also shown. The number quoted above was accurate on 17 September. This is exactly the movement the piece anticipated, and it will keep moving through opening weekend.