diff --git a/test/script/regression.py b/test/script/regression.py
index 21a5ea626a25a459f46d566d9ca10d7d08db88d4..3b331a36b33d5fc1cab698f8febdea8e2e591024 100755
--- a/test/script/regression.py
+++ b/test/script/regression.py
@@ -873,8 +873,8 @@ def _compare_report_files(gold_path, output_path):
             unordered list in the html report files, or (0, 0) if the
             lenghts are the same.
         """
-        gold_file = open(gold_path)
-        output_file = open(output_path)
+        gold_file = open(gold_path, encoding='utf-8')
+        output_file = open(output_path, encoding='utf-8')
         goldHtml = gold_file.read()
         outputHtml = output_file.read()
         goldHtml = goldHtml[goldHtml.find("<ul>"):]