Resident Evil Just Passed The Mandalorian and Grogu. What the Box Office Upset Means for Star Wars

One of the more unexpected box office comparisons of 2026 now belongs to Star Wars. Zach Cregger's Resident Evil reboot has reached $361 million worldwide, which puts it ahead of Disney's The Mandalorian and Grogu at $350 million globally. That result matters beyond bragging rights. It sharpens the conversation around how Star Wars is performing on the big screen after a long gap between theatrical releases.

A smaller reboot finished ahead of Star Wars

The simple headline is striking: a 95-minute Resident Evil relaunch earned more worldwide than the first live-action Star Wars movie to reach theaters after a seven-year hiatus.

The Mandalorian and Grogu arrived carrying the weight of Star Wars' return to cinemas after The Rise of Skywalker closed the sequel trilogy with $1 billion worldwide. Instead, the film finished with $350 million globally against a production budget of $165 million. According to the figures cited, that left it well short of the level usually needed to break even, and it now stands as the lowest-grossing live-action Star Wars movie, a mark previously held by Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Resident Evil, by comparison, was working with a much smaller production budget. Cregger's 2026 reboot took in $361 million worldwide on $75 million, which works out to nearly five times its cost. The movie also crossed the commonly cited threshold that films need to reach before they begin generating profit. Using the broad industry rule mentioned here, that line sits at around three times a movie's production budget, and Resident Evil had already cleared it in its third week of release.

Why the comparison is bigger than one weekend chart

The most revealing part of this matchup is not only that Resident Evil made slightly more money. It is that the two films got there under very different financial conditions.

For Star Wars, the challenge was much steeper. The Mandalorian and Grogu already had a $165 million production budget, and its marketing spend was reportedly another $100 million or more. That meant Disney had a much larger total investment to recover.

Resident Evil did not need to reach Star Wars-sized totals to become a success. At $361 million worldwide on a $75 million budget, it delivered the kind of return that makes sequel talk easier. That turnaround is especially notable for a series that has already been rebooted recently. The property has eight live-action films in total, and this new version is its second reset in five years.

The franchise also came into 2026 with clear warning signs. Resident Evil has long been a strong performer internationally, but its U.S. results had been weakening. That pattern was visible across the original Milla Jovovich run, and 2021's Welcome to Raccoon City appeared to reinforce concerns that the brand had lost momentum. Cregger's version reversed that trajectory and set a new benchmark for the series.

What this could mean for Star Wars' next theatrical step

There is another reason the comparison lands so cleanly: both movies were positioned as relatively accessible entries. Viewers familiar with each franchise's lore could catch more references and Easter eggs, but neither title depended on extensive homework to follow the main story.

Where things look very different is what comes next. Disney has not greenlit a sequel to The Mandalorian and Grogu. Resident Evil, on the other hand, has already cleared one major obstacle to getting another chapter made, simply by proving itself at the box office.

That does not mean the next Resident Evil is around the corner. Cregger has said he has ideas for a follow-up, but he has also sounded noncommittal. He is producing Gladys, a prequel tied to Weapons, and he is set to direct the science fiction thriller The Flood, which begins shooting next year. If he returns to Resident Evil, a sequel could still be several years away. Another possibility is that Sony Pictures moves faster by turning to a different director.

For Disney, the broader theatrical plan is still moving ahead. Star Wars: Starfighter is next, described as a standalone film set roughly five years after The Rise of Skywalker. While Starfighter and The Mandalorian and Grogu sit decades apart in in-universe history, both projects point to the same larger strategy. After years of leaning heavily on streaming, Disney is steering Star Wars back toward big-screen event releases.

The immediate question is whether that pivot can produce stronger results than The Mandalorian and Grogu did. Right now, the surprise yardstick is a Resident Evil reboot that managed to do exactly that.