I’ve been keeping a close eye on “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” and now that we have the tracking numbers, courtesy of Deadline.
It looks like this Nia Costa-directed, Alex Garland-written, and Danny Boyle-produced horror sequel is tracking at $20M over the MLK four-day weekend. Yes, these are early numbers, but I don’t think Sony must be happy with them.
Sony’s been quietly screening “Bone Temple” all month, and we’ve seen the buzz firsthand. After a fan screening at AMC Century City, the social media reactions were very positive, and a few days later, Sony gave the go-ahead on a third “28 Years Later” installment. Cillian Murphy is in talks to return, Garland’s writing, and Boyle himself has hinted he wants to direct the next one.
Just to compare, “28 Years Later” opened last June to $30M domestically and ended up with $151.3M worldwide—decent numbers, but low audience scores killed any chance at legs. The film tanked in its second weekend, dropping 70%, and many pointed to low audience scores as the culprit for that crash.
Tracking for “Bone Temple” suggests that the audience the first instalment isolated—and lost—might not be back for this sequel. People showed up for a zombie thrill ride and got something moodier, more existential. That’s a win for us, but not for the nostalgia-induced crowd. The post-Walking Dead, post-pandemic horror audience wants blood, not meditations on trauma. Sucks for them.
The budget for ‘The Bone Temple’ is reported to be similar to the last one, $70-$75M. I’m genuinely curious to see how this one lands once reviews drop. Sony took a risk by green-lighting the trilogy capper, but having Murphy back as the lead for that one will certainly help the film be more successful than ‘Bone Temple.’