There was this dude — hardcore gamer, I gather, and fan of the “Resident Evil” film and game franchise, who did this to the beater he drove to work at a Subway shop in Roxboro, N.C.

You just knew they’d never abandon the Racoon City movie series, even after Milla Jovovich priced-out and aged out of being the nubile action heroine who anchored this 24 years and running film franchise. The fans are that dedicated.

So a franchise-best blockbuster opening — $24 million Thursday night and Friday, setting up a $50 million weekend per Deadline.com — should come as no shock. Especially when Trumpflation is considered.

It did $8.8 million Thursday night alone.

Actor turned director Zach Cregger’s take on the game-turned-movie franchise is winning the best reviews of the series as well. Go figure. I lost whatever interest I had in this game-to-big-screen enterprise long ago, but Cregger means I’ll need to see it.

The five million or so gamers and diehards and Cregger fans — he did the superior horror tales “Barbarians” and “Weapons” — and whatever you’d call somebody who paints his car in Umbrella Corp. livery are turning out for this one.

The Sandra Bullock/Nicole Kidman “Practical Magic 2” sequel is doing about half the business it did opening weekend, figure $13-15 million, and that’ll easily be good enough for second place.

“The Odyssey” wins weekdays in this portion of its summer-long battle with “Spider-Man: Brand New Day.” But the weekend is too close to call at the moment, with both films heading towards $5-6 million takes, with one slated for third the other coming in fourth.

“Coyote vs. Acme” seems on track to take fifth with a $4 million+ take.

New releases “Shaun of the Sheep: The Monster of Mossy Bottom” and the outdoor action pic “The Weight” with Ethan Hawke might crack the top ten in limited release, as the lower ranks of this list typically don’t need to clear much more than $1 million to get in. Both are good and deserve an audience.

But the “Transformers” re-release is doing over $2, which means somebody’ll be left out and several somebodies are destined to drop out of the Top Ten. “The Uprising” for sure, “By Any Means” and maybe one other title will fade out.

Look at the take for “Mutiny” and “By Any Means” and tell me Jason Statham and Mark Wahlberg aren’t seeing the writing on the wall.

Check back here over the weekend as I’ll be updating this tallies as data comes in.