The fourth video game-based Resident Evil film, Resident Evil: Afterlife scored the best opening in series history with an estimated $27.3 million, which was more than the total earned by the next six movies in a lackluster weekend in which the top ten films brought in only $63.9 million, down 11% from the same frame last year when Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself opened and 22% from 2008 when Burn After Reading topped the charts.

Resident Evil: Afterlife sold about the same number of tickets (3 million) as the previous film in the science fiction/horror series, Resident Evil: Extinction, which earned $23.7 million in 2007, but Afterlife was shown in 3-D on about 2,000 screens and at 141 IMAX venues where ticket prices are close to $20 for prime time showings.  The audience for the Milla Jovovich zombie movie, which was the only major movie opening this weekend, was predictably male (58%) and evenly split between those under and over 25.

Sony’s stylish heist film Takers dropped only 43.9% and took second place.  In spite of the fact that it faced little or no competition for its mature target audience, last week’s winner The American fell a disturbing 55%, while Robert Rodriguez’ grindhouse Mexploitation movie Machete tumbled 63.2%.

Nothing much of interest happened among the other holdovers with the exception of Inception remaining in the top ten for nine weeks.  Christopher Nolan’s science fiction caper film has now earned $282 million.  It still has an outside chance of reaching the $300 million plateau, but will likely finish a little short.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World fell to #18 and earned less than a million dollars over the weekend.  Its domestic total is just over $30 million and unlikely to go much higher, and the film’s worldwide cumulative is $42.6 million, still well below its $60 million production cost.