Can “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” claw to the top of the domestic box office, or will James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” rule for the fifth consecutive weekend?
“The Bone Temple,” the fourth installment in Sony’s dystopian “28 Days Later” franchise, is aiming for $20 million to $22 million in its four-day domestic debut over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The film arrives about six months after its predecessor, “28 Years Later,” which opened last June to $30 million over the traditional three-day weekend. “28 Years Later” ended its run with a tidy $70 million in North America and $150 million globally against a $60 million budget. This zombie sequel carries a slightly higher $63 million price tag.
Directed by Nia DaCosta and written by series creator Alex Garland, “The Bone Temple” takes place after the previous film and brings back Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell and Alfie Williams as they continue to grapple with a Rage Virus that’s ravaging a post-apocalyptic Britain. The film could benefit from a dearth of competition as well as positive reviews. “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” currently holds a 94% Rotten Tomatoes average, with Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge writing that “it’s bold, mind-bending work which satisfies that so-often-frustrated craving for a zombie movie with brains.”
Elsewhere, Chloe Zhao’s Shakespearean tragedy “Hamnet” is expanding to 688 theaters after several weekends in limited release. The film, which just won the Golden Globe for best motion picture drama as well as a best actress trophy for star Jessie Buckley, has earned an impressive $13 million domestically during its platform rollout.
Meanwhile the reigning box office champ “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is looking to add $18 million to $19 million over the four-day frame. Although a theatrical juggernaut with $1.23 billion globally, the third “Avatar” is running out of steam faster than its predecessors. To wit, the first two films were No. 1 at the box office for seven consecutive weekends, while the domination of “Fire and Ash” might end after five. Of course, Hollywood’s expectations for “Avatar 3” are stratospheric because the prior films, 2009’s “Avatar” and 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” stand as two of the biggest movies in history with $2.9 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively. (The director has joked that after assessing the financial results of the third installment, he’ll hold a press conference to determine whether he’ll proceed with “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5.”)
January tends to be slower for movie theaters, at least compared to the summer months and holiday season. Hollywood has set a few potential hits in the first month of the year, however, including Amazon MGM’s sci-fi adventure “Mercy” with Chris Pratt, Sam Raimi’s survival horror film “Send Help” and the Jason Statham-led “Shelter.”
“Patience we will be a virtue as we await some of the bigger openers on the way,” notes Comscore’s head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian.
