Sony/Columbia’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” is getting rave reviews from critics and fans, but is facing a weak estimated 4-day opening weekend of $15 million that is putting it in in the No. 2 spot on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend against the fifth frame of 20th Century/Lightstorm’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which industry estimates have earning $17 million this weekend.
Pre-release projections had the sequel to last summer’s “28 Years Later” earning $20 million over four days. Instead, after the film made $5.6 million from 3,506 theaters on opening day, “The Bone Temple” is pacing for a launch on par with the $15.2 million opening of the critically panned horror film “The Bye Bye Man” on MLK Weekend 2017.
The one bit of hope for Sony is that reception for “The Bone Temple” is even stronger than “28 Years Later” with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 94% critics and 90% audience along with an A- on CinemaScore, a grade that is rare for horror films and well above the B that its predecessor earned.
However, it is possible that such high initial marks for “The Bone Temple” are because the opening night crowd for this film is highly concentrated among hardcore fans of Danny Boyle’s zombie series who enjoyed “28 Years Later” while those who didn’t like that film are staying home.
Some reviews among horror site critics who didn’t like the first film praise this sequel for giving them what they hoped for out of the last installment, so perhaps the word of mouth could convince those previously disappointed to give the series a second chance. But that will be key to “Bone Temple” getting anywhere close to the legs it needs to turn a theatrical profit against a $63 million budget.
Among holiday holdovers, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” has passed the $350 million mark domestically, but its MLK weekend total is less than half of the $39.8 million that “Avatar: The Way of Water” earned on this holiday three years ago. “Fire and Ash” is now on course to finish its run ranked fourth among all 2025 domestic releases, falling below the $423 million runs of “A Minecraft Movie” and “Lilo & Stitch.”
The title of Hollywood’s highest grossing film of last year will go to another Disney film: “Zootopia 2.” Holding virtually even over three days from last weekend with an estimated $12 million MLK weekend total, the animated sequel could end up above “Avatar 3” on the charts next weekend, at which point it will pass $400 million domestic and $1.7 billion worldwide, the latter milestone making it the highest grossing animated film ever from an MPA studio and second highest of all time behind “Ne Zha 2.”
Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid” will cross $100 million domestic and $200 million worldwide this weekend after adding $11 million over MLK weekend, getting the studio off to a good start in what it is hoping will be a resurgent year at the box office.
Also getting 2026 off to a great start is A24 with “Marty Supreme,” which this weekend will become the studio’s top domestic grosser. With an industry estimated $7 million over four days this weekend, the Oscar contender will pass 2022 Best Picture winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once” on the A24 charts and is in good position to become A24’s first $100 million domestic grosser.
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