Box Office: ‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ Bests ’28 Years Later: Bone Temple’ with $17M+

SATURDAY AM: It’s looking like James Cameron’s Na’Vi are scaring off Sony’s Infected at the MLK box office as 20th Century Studios’ Avatar: Fire and Ash is on its way to a $17.6M four-day fifth weekend while 28 Days Years Later: The Bone Temple is coming in way under its $20M+ tracking projections with $15M (rivals see it much lower). At a 3-day of $13.2M, it’s the second highest opening in the Danny Boyle-Alex Garland franchise after last June’s 28 Years Later ($30M).

Those numbers for The Bone Temple are a disappointment. Not Sony, not theaters, not anybody wanted to see the movie at that level, especially as the sole MLK weekend opener. On the positive side, the Nia DaCosta-directed, Alex Garland-penned and Danny Boyle-produced fourth title in the British zombie series gets an A- CinemaScore, and a very good 72% definite recommend on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak, which is better than the B CinemaScore and 52% definite recommend on 28 Years Later. Will positive word of mouth kick-in? I dunno…

Here’s the thing, while Sony was in need of franchises, and likes to prop auteur-driven content, this is a very niche horror, very gory, somewhat highbrow zombie series. It’s not a horror franchise for a mass audience. While Bone Temple did well enough last summer, it wasn’t at a lofty level one would expect for a long-delayed series, plus the audience scores were alright, not through the roof. Coming off of that, even if the follow-up here is getting a better audience reaction, it’s hard to build off and blast off the previous installment’s OK word of mouth. Factor in the box office algorithm that whenever a long-delayed sequel with any kind of fan appreciation opens (28 Years Later arriving in theaters 18 years after 28 Week Later), it’s apt to post a record debut for the franchise. Any subsequent sequel thereafter typically sees a decline in its opening, read 2020’s Bad Boys for Life posts the highest opening ever for the series at $62.5M, while the 2024 sequel Bad Boys: Ride or Die comes in -10% lower with a $56.5M opening. Another example: Star Wars: Force Awakens opens to $247.9M, while Last Jedi opens to $220M, -11% between openings. There’s a bigger gap between the domestic debuts here for Bone Temple and 28 Years Later at -56%.

Demos on Bone Temple are on par with that of last June’s 28 Years Later: Men over 25 showed up at both at 49%, followed by women over 25 at 26%, with slightly more proportionately men under 25 (17% this time to 13%), and fewer women under 25 (9% here versus 12%). Diversity demos were as follows: 50% Caucasian (up from 46%), 28% Hispanic and Latino (up from 25%), 8% Black (down from 12%) and 8% Asian American (down from 10%).

PLF screens are accounting for 36% of the weekend, with the West the best in what’s an overall even play across the country. AMC Grove in Los Angeles is the leading location for the DaCosta movie at $23,1k.

Let’s see where international comes in for Bone Temple, the movie having a 98% offshore footprint. Figuring that the net production cost of $63M is true, then it’s on global to save this sequel’s P&L. 28 Years Later finaled at $151.3M worldwide against a net production cost of $60M before P&A.

Meanwhile, Avatar: Fire and Ash should arrive at a running global cume that’s north of $1.3 billion, while Zootopia 2 should come in around $1.68 billion WW. Zootopia 2 by end of Monday looks to be less than $7M away from crossing $400M at the domestic B.O.

The entire Friday-Monday MLK weekend is coming in around $102M for all movies, which is +8% from last year’s $94.2M, but the third best take for the holiday stretch post Covid; 2023’s being the best when the fifth weekend Avatar: Way of Water and the second weekend of M3GAN ruled.

FRIDAY PM: Na’vi and the Infected are locked in a battle for No. 1 over what is a very sluggish MLK weekend. The major motion picture studios, in their commitment to theatrical, forgot to release more wide entries, Sony being the only one to have the grit to take on the fifth weekend of 20th Century Studio’s Avatar: Fire and Ash with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Currently both are looking at $15M over four days.

Last year, the fifth weekend of Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King led with $15.4M over four days with Sony’s One of Them Days in second with $14M and Universal/Blumhouse’s Wolf Man — which was expected to well but did not — debuting at $12.2M. The entire Friday-Monday frame came in at $94.2M. Let’s hope we’re not lower.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple currently is seeing a $5.8M Friday, which includes Thursday night’s $2.1M. Heading into the weekend, analytics firm RelishMix measured the sequel’s social media universe at 186.3M across YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram, which is 17% behind where 28 Years Later was this summer but 1% ahead of the social media reach of other horror franchise genre norms. “The 28 Years cast are not big drivers with the two leads off the grid and Chi Louis Parry bringing 131K fans and Emma Laird with 108K,” reports RelishMix.

RELATED: 35 Of The Most Anticipated Movies Of 2026

The top 6 are as follows:

FRIDAY AM: Sony’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has begun the MLK weekend with $2.1 million in previews from 2 p.m. showtimes Thursday. As expected, that’s lower than last summer’s $5.8M previews for 28 Years Later, with that movie’s Thursday boosted by Juneteenth holiday moviegoers.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is really the only major studio wide release of the MLK weekend. It’s expected to do $20M-$22M over the four days against Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s fifth weekend, which is expected to land around $19M over four days. 28 Years Later opened to $30M in June 2025 after a $14.4M Friday plus previews. That movie was directed by franchise co-architect Danny Boyle, while the follow-up here is helmed by Candyman director Nia DaCosta.

28 Years Later last summer skewed 75% over 25, 62% male. Men over 25 repped close to half of the audience, while women over 25 showed up at 37%, the second biggest demographic.

Critics love Bone Temple at 94%, and the current PostTrak score is 4.5 stars out of 5.

Here’s how the rest of the top 5 went down for the week: