Resident Evil 3: Extinction topped the weekend box office with an unexpectedly strong September opening estimated at $24 million -- the best debut ever for the series, topping Resident Evil: Apocalypse's $23 million September, 2004 opening in spite of the fact that Extinction bowed in 156 fewer theaters than its predecessor.  Of course success for the third film in a franchise is old hat for the summer/fall of 2007, though it appears that only The Bourne Ultimatum and perhaps Resident Evil 3 will end up becoming the highest grossing film in their particular series.

Created by Shinji Mikami for Capcom, Resident Evil, known as Biohazard in Japan, is a potent zombie-fighting series of videogames loosely based on George A. Romero's popular series of zombie films that began with the genre-defining Night of the Living Dead.  In addition to the three feature films, the Resident Evil game has inspired a series of novels by S.D. Perry, as well as toys produced by a number of companies including Toy Biz, Palisades, and NECA.  NECA's Resident Evil action figures, in particular the Tenth Anniversary Figures that came out late last year are still available.  In addition to the toys and videogame-based books, Keith R.A. DeCandido has written novelizations of all three Resident Evil films published by Pocket Books.

The other top-10 film with heavy genre film credentials is D-War: Dragon Wars, a special effects-laden Korean film with an American cast that has earned over $50 million overseas (mostly in Korea), but which has brought in just $8.6 million in two weeks here in the States, where it has received terrible reviews (only 14% positive on the Rotten Tomatoes Website).  Although its special effects have earned nearly universal praise, Dragon Wars' plot has been described as 'laughable' with Variety claiming that the film has a 'Z-grade, irony free script.'