Paul W.S. Anderson still hasn't come down from the high of having two No. 1 films at the boxoffice this summer.

As the writer-director of 20th Century Fox's "Alien vs. Predator" and the writer-producer of Screen Gems' "Resident Evil: Apocalypse," the British-born filmmaker has seen the two movies gross more than $127.3 million domestically. And, in the process, he also has proved that he knows what teenage boys want when they go to the movies.

That talent has raised Anderson's profile in Hollywood, which always is keen to capture the imagination of teenage boys. By working in both the horror and video game genres, Anderson and his production partner, Jeremy Bolt, have demonstrated a knack for capturing that sector of the audience.

With 1995's "Mortal Kombat," which reaped $70.4 million domestically for Paramount Pictures, Anderson directed one of the first video game adaptations. He and Bolt then had a hand in both "Resident Evil" titles; the first, in 2002, took in $40.1 million, while its sequel has attracted $47.6 million to date.

Partnered under their company banner, Impact Films, Anderson and Bolt have three pictures in development: Two of them are video game adaptations -- "D.O.A." and "Driver" -- and the third is a low-budget supernatural thriller titled "The Dark."

"Video games altered, for a core audience, the kind of movies they like," Anderson said. "We grew up playing video games. We appreciate it and can relate to it. And we want to deliver to this audience three times a year."

Anderson and Bolt's solid focus on teen-friendly genres led them to their four-year partnership with German-based Constantin Film. Their Impact Films is a joint venture with Constantin, which provides the funds for overhead and development and owns 51% of the company and its product. Both "Resident Evil" films were produced under the joint venture, which also is home to the three pictures they have in development. (Anderson's stint as writer-director on Fox's "AVP" was outside the Impact deal.)

"We have a real partnership that we've invested millions into developing," said Robert Kulzer, head of production for Constantin Film in Los Angeles. "We've had a few first-look deals (with other filmmakers), but they weren't that successful and didn't work out. The relationship with Impact is the only really successful relationship we have."

Both parties credit their success to a like-minded philosophy that encompasses a love of video games and horror movies, a strong fiduciary adherence to budgets and a mastery of the complex world of tax incentives.

Bolt is the first to acknowledge that spending too much on a film with a limited audience is the kiss of death.

"There is a cap to what these movies can be made for," Bolt said. "Our budget for the second 'Resident Evil' got slightly bigger than the first because the audience had expanded, but at the end of the day, it's an R-rated movie. To have spent $50 million on it would have been madness." "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" was budgeted at $40 million.

The success of "Resident Evil" has not gone unnoticed at Screen Gems, Impact's partner on the films. The Sony-based unit is working with Anderson and Bolt on developing a third film for the franchise.

Said Screen Gems president Clint Culpepper: "I think their work ethic is fantastic, and I'd work with them again, again and again. Paul and Jeremy are both talented, diligent and responsible filmmakers. They get what we do, and we get what they do."

Anderson and Bolt said that they learned the hard way how to be responsible filmmakers. After their first film, "Shopping," garnered a lot of attention and "Mortal Kombat" topped the boxoffice for three consecutive weeks, they were riding high. But their beginner's luck ran out in 1998 when Anderson became the "gun for hire" on Jerry Weintraub's "Soldier," set up at Warner Bros. Pictures. The expensive studio film starred Kurt Russell and had an estimated $75 million budget but was a boxoffice flop, leaving Anderson "in a sorry state," according to Kulzer.

"It wasn't what I was used to," Anderson said. "I was used to making movies where we were in it creatively and financially. In this case, I was never even shown the budget for the film. It's very hard to be responsible when you don't know what the budget is. It wasn't a happy experience, and it showed with the end result."

Weintraub did not return calls seeking comment.

That experience motivated Anderson and Bolt to team up with Constantin. "I felt I needed more control of my career and the movies I made," Anderson said. "I needed to develop our own projects and still be able to jump on a script and have the freedom to pursue it."

The deal with Constantin gave him exactly that. What's more, because he and Bolt own 49% of the negatives to their films, in five to 10 years the two hope to have built up a small library of genre films, easily exploitable in the DVD world.

Now Impact is looking to translate its recent success into a lucrative North American distribution deal that also would ideally involve Constantin, give Impact the ability to make more than one film a year and entrench them with one studio's marketing team.

"I think it's useful for them to have a relationship with a studio," said Ken Kamins, who manages Anderson and Bolt. "They can function the way they have, putting movies together off-campus and creating a competitive situation with the studios. But there are advantages to having a home with a studio who considers you a strategic partner."