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Matthew Huntley: The Resident Evil franchise is one that's neither really loved nor really hated, but save for the original, they're always released at a time when the overall marketplace is slow, so they typically remain the only new choice for moviegoers on opening weekend. Afterlife is no different and therefore I think $27 million falls in line with expectations nearly perfectly. It doesn't surprise me at all. Given inflation and the 3D surcharges, it sold about as many tickets as Extinction did back in 2007, so there's clearly still an audience for it, but again, is it because viewers are loyal to the material or simply because there's a lack of new choices? I'd be curious to know what the numbers would be if it was released at a more competitive time of year. Because the reviews for Resident Evil tend to be less than glowing, Sony is wise to release it when a better film couldn't possibly come along and steal Evil's audience.

Pete Kilmer: This is the franchise that continues to grow. Is it a series of great movies? No. Are they fun for those of who like post-apocalyptic movies? Heck yeah. I'm really enjoying Milla in this role and look forward to more. Having the movie in 3D probably helped it, and what's really nice is that it used Cameron's system, which I think helped Paul W.S. Anderson up his game quite a bit. While he'll never be a great director, he does come up with some nice sequences. I think the opening of $26.7 million is pretty strong for this franchise. I tend to think that this movie is gonna have about two weeks of legs in the US. The opening of the movie has me really curious about the development of World War Z and other zombie related movies.

Shalimar Sahota: The opening is bang on target, really. Being a fan of the games, I would consider myself the target audience for the films, and I imagine what we're looking at is simply the same audience coming back for more. Personally, with each installment I don't see them getting any better, nor do I find them any worse. While the 3D effect is good, I don't see it having any impact on the eventual box office, so it'll behave just like the sequels did - which means we'll probably get a fifth film soon.

I think it's interesting that Brett mentions Final Destination, since the last instalment became the highest earner of the franchise, possibly due to it being in 3D. Saw is another horror franchise on the horizon that has already seen dwindling audiences, yet is hoping to get a box office boost from actually being shot in 3D (no post production conversion here). I think it'll be interesting to see how Saw 3D performs against Resident Evil Afterlife, but also against its own sequels.

Reagen Sulewski: "Only" $3 million more than the previous Resident Evil films might just be a triumph given the climate of the past few months. We've seen two medium-profile sequels completely bomb out this summer when going to a 3D format, so there was no guarantee this wouldn't fall to the same fate.

Then again, this appears to be one of the most loyal fanbases out there. There may not be a gigantic pile of people interested in this franchise but those that are, really are. Any other franchise would be in "direct to DVD" mode by now.

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