Top-Grossing Zombie Movies Ever: Highest Box Office Hits

While brain-eating zombies might haunt your nightmares, they’ve long been a box-office dream for studio executives. Zombie films, built on the simple premise of the dead rising to prey on the living, have generated huge profits by following that core idea.

What sets the most successful entries apart is often a unique twist — blending horror with comedy, giving a zombie consciousness, or even introducing undead infants. Below are the 17 highest-grossing zombie movies worldwide, ranked using Box Office Mojo data. These totals are presented without adjusting for inflation, so some older classics don’t appear as high as they might otherwise.

17. ‘Creepshow’

Release date: Nov. 2, 1982

Opening weekend (U.S.): $5,870,889

Domestic total gross: $21,028,755

Foreign total gross: N/A

Worldwide total gross: $21,028,755

When horror legends George A. Romero and Stephen King collaborate, attention is guaranteed. Creepshow is an anthology of short horror tales; the third segment, “Something to Tide You Over,” features revenant victims returning to exact vengeance and is the reason the film is counted as a zombie entry. Made on a modest budget, Creepshow opened to nearly $5.9 million and finished with a $21 million domestic haul.

16. ‘Shaun of the Dead’

Release date: Sept. 24, 2004

Opening weekend (U.S.): $3,330,781

Domestic total gross: $13,542,874

Foreign total gross: $16,496,518

Worldwide total gross: $30,039,392

Shaun of the Dead blends sharp British humor with zombie horror as Simon Pegg’s hapless Shaun and his friend Nick Frost navigate an undead London. Co-written by Pegg and director Edgar Wright, the film balances laughs and gore, earning roughly $30 million worldwide.

15. ‘Land of the Dead’

Release date: June 24, 2005

Opening weekend (U.S.): $10,221,705

Domestic total gross: $20,700,082

Foreign total gross: $26,070,520

Worldwide total gross: $46,770,602

George A. Romero returned with this fourth chapter in his Living Dead cycle. Land of the Dead follows survivors attempting to endure in a postapocalyptic Pittsburgh. Strong opening weekend returns helped the film reach nearly $47 million globally.

14. ‘Pet Sematary’

Release date: April 21, 1989

Opening weekend (U.S.): $12,046,179

Domestic total gross: $57,469,467

Foreign total gross: N/A

Worldwide total gross: $57,469,467

Adapted from Stephen King’s unsettling novel, Pet Sematary portrays the dead returning altered and malevolent after being buried in a cursed burial ground. Though it lacks explicit brain-eating, the film’s depiction of reanimated loved ones places it within zombie-adjacent territory. It earned a notable $57.5 million domestically on a modest budget.

13. ‘28 Weeks Later’

Release date: May 11, 2007

Opening weekend (U.S.): $9,807,292

Domestic total gross: $28,638,916

Foreign total gross: $35,599,524

Worldwide total gross: $64,238,440

The sequel to 28 Days Later, this installment picks up six months after the Rage Virus decimates London. The fragile recovery collapses when the virus returns, and the film follows the renewed chaos. Produced on a relatively low budget, 28 Weeks Later earned over $64 million worldwide.

12. ‘28 Days Later’

Release date: June 27, 2013

Opening weekend (U.S.): $10,061,858

Domestic total gross: $45,064,915

Foreign total gross: $37,654,970

Worldwide total gross: $82,719,885

Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later reinvigorated the modern zombie genre with the Rage Virus and frantic, fast-moving infected. After a man awakens from a coma to find London overrun, the film follows his struggle to survive. The picture became a cult favorite and earned over $82 million worldwide on a small budget.

11. ‘Dawn of the Dead’

Release date: March 19, 2004

Opening weekend (U.S.): $26,722,575

Domestic total gross: $59,020,957

Foreign total gross: $43,335,424

Worldwide total gross: $102,356,381

A fairly traditional zombie movie with a modern remake, Dawn of the Dead centers on survivors holed up in a shopping mall while the undead roam outside. The film mixes survival drama with sharp social commentary and was a significant box-office success, clearing over $100 million worldwide.

10. ‘Zombieland’

Release date: Oct. 2, 2009

Opening weekend (U.S.): $24,733,155

Domestic total gross: $75,590,286

Foreign total gross: $26,801,254

Worldwide total gross: $102,391,540

Zombieland favors humor and adventure, following Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) as he survives by following strict rules, then teams up with Woody Harrelson’s Tallahassee and two sisters on a madcap quest that includes a zombie-infested amusement park and a memorable Bill Murray cameo. It earned more than $102 million globally.

9. ‘Resident Evil’

Release date: March 15, 2002

Opening weekend (U.S.): $17,707,106

Domestic total gross: $40,119,709

Foreign total gross: $62,865,153

Worldwide total gross: $102,984,862

The video game–inspired Resident Evil launched a franchise built on action, horror, and the Umbrella Corporation’s viral catastrophes. Starring Milla Jovovich as Alice, the film turned into a lucrative series starter and cleared about $103 million worldwide.

8. ‘ParaNorman’

Release date: August 17, 2012

Opening weekend (U.S.): $14,087,050

Domestic total gross: $56,003,051

Foreign total gross: $51,136,348

Worldwide total gross: $107,139,399

The only animated film on this list, ParaNorman is a family-friendly stop-motion feature about a boy who can speak to the dead. When a curse briefly frees the undead, Norman must save his town. The movie earned over $107 million globally, making it a rare kid-focused hit in the genre.

7. ‘Warm Bodies’

Release date: Feb. 1, 2013

Opening weekend (U.S.): $20,353,967

Domestic total gross: $66,380,662

Foreign total gross: $50,600,000

Worldwide total gross: $116,980,662

Warm Bodies reimagines the zombie romance: a reflective zombie known as R forms a bond with a human woman, sparking a recovery of humanity that spreads among the infected. Its fresh take and romantic thread helped it earn nearly $117 million worldwide.

6. ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’

Release date: Sept. 10, 2004

Opening weekend (U.S.): $23,036,273

Domestic total gross: $51,201,453

Foreign total gross: $78,141,316

Worldwide total gross: $129,342,769

The second Resident Evil film escalated the action and body count, sending Alice into a Raccoon City overrun by the infected. Strong international performance helped push this sequel past $129 million worldwide.

5. ‘Resident Evil: Extinction’

Release date: Sept. 21, 2007

Opening weekend (U.S.): $23,678,580

Domestic total gross: $50,648,679

Foreign total gross: $97,763,386

Worldwide total gross: $148,412,065

Extinction expanded the franchise’s global scope as Alice and a band of survivors battle Umbrella and the infected across a desolate landscape. The film reached roughly $148 million worldwide.

4. ‘Resident Evil: Retribution’

Release date: Sept. 14, 2012

Opening weekend (U.S.): $21,052,227

Domestic total gross: $42,345,531

Foreign total gross: $197,658,893

Worldwide total gross: $240,004,424

Retribution continued the series’ globe-trotting spectacles and virtual-set set pieces. Though domestic returns were modest compared with its budget, the film’s strong international box office helped it reach about $240 million worldwide.

3. ‘Resident Evil: Afterlife’

Release date: Sept. 10, 2010

Opening weekend (U.S.): $26,650,264

Domestic total gross: $60,128,566

Foreign total gross: $240,099,518

Worldwide total gross: $300,228,084

The franchise’s fourth major installment, Afterlife, combined large-scale action sequences with 3D spectacle. It performed strongly overseas, yielding roughly $300 million worldwide.

2. ‘Resident Evil: The Final Chapter’

Release date: Jan. 27, 2017

Opening weekend (U.S.): $13,601,682

Domestic total gross: $26,830,068

Foreign total gross: $285,412,558

Worldwide total gross: $312,242,626

The concluding chapter of the long-running Alice saga underperformed domestically but was a major international success, bringing the franchise’s total for the final film to over $312 million worldwide.

1. ‘World War Z’

Release date: June 21, 2013

Opening weekend (U.S.): $66,411,834

Domestic total gross: $202,359,711

Foreign total gross: $337,648,165

Worldwide total gross: $540,007,876

Top of the list by a wide margin is World War Z, led by Brad Pitt. This globe-spanning thriller follows former U.N. investigator Gerry Lane racing to find the source and a solution to a rapidly spreading zombie pandemic. A massive opening weekend and enormous international interest propelled the film to over $540 million worldwide.

Close but No Zombies

Box Office Mojo’s broader genre listings include a few films that resemble zombie stories but don’t meet the same criteria. For example, Death Becomes Her features reanimated characters via a potion rather than a virus and lacks violent, flesh-eating behavior. Hotel Transylvania, while containing zombies as minor characters, is a family-oriented monster comedy in which the undead have no meaningful impact on the plot.