Reviews were generally favorable, citing improvements over the original in terms of acting, production values, and scares while finding it lacking in character development, excessively gory, and indifferent to Romero's preoccupation with consumerism.

The film was released on March 19, 2004, by Universal Pictures it topped the box office in its United States opening weekend, and ended its theatrical run grossing $102.3 million worldwide against a budget of $26 million.

The special makeup effects for the film were created by David LeRoy Anderson, and the music was composed by Tyler Bates in his first collaboration with Snyder. Filming took place from June 9 to September 6 of 2003, on location in Toronto, Ontario, Canada where a now-defunct shopping mall that was slated for demolition was used. Intent on making the remake a straight horror, Snyder took over to direct with the goal of keeping every aspect of the production as grounded in reality as possible. Rubinstein (who produced the original), and hired Gunn to write the script, which adopted the original's basic premise but is oriented around the action genre. Newman and Abraham bought the rights from co-producer Richard P. Producers Eric Newman and Marc Abraham developed the film rather as a 're-envisioning' of the original Dawn of the Dead, aiming to reinvigorate the zombie genre for modern audiences. Set in Milwaukee, the film follows a group of survivors who take refuge in an upscale suburban shopping mall during a zombie apocalypse. Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree from the original film also make cameo appearances. Romero's 1978 horror film of the same name, it stars an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer. Dawn of the Dead is a 2004 action horror film directed by Zack Snyder in his directorial debut, with a screenplay by James Gunn.

Dawn of the dead george romero