Sony’s New Horror Movie Massively Underperforms at Box Office

Sony’s latest horror entry arrived in theaters with strong forecasts, but early box office numbers tell a different story. Despite projections that it could lead the holiday weekend, the film’s opening fell well below expectations.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple underperforms at box office

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple opened to a domestic total of $15 million across 3,506 theaters, with an opening weekend of $13 million. International markets contributed $16.2 million, bringing the worldwide total to $31.2 million.

According to Box Office Mojo, its Friday debut earned $5.6 million, followed by $4.1 million on Saturday (down 26.8%), $3.3 million on Sunday (down 19.5%), and $2 million on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (down 39.4%).

The film was projected to gross $20–22 million domestically over the four-day MLK weekend but fell short of expectations. Sony Pictures Releasing distributed the film, which had a production budget of $63 million. The film received an R rating and has a runtime of 1 hour and 49 minutes.

By contrast, 2025’s 28 Years Later opened with $30,002,966 domestically and grossed $70.4 million in North America. Its international total was $80.8 million, resulting in a global gross of $151.3 million. The previous film’s opening more than doubled that of The Bone Temple.

Directed by Nia DaCosta and written by Alex Garland, The Bone Temple stars Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, and Alfie Williams. The story continues the Rage Virus saga, introducing a plot where Spike joins Jimmy Crystal’s gang while Dr. Kelson uncovers a world-altering discovery. Cillian Murphy appears briefly as Jim, linking to the next sequel.

Despite underwhelming box office returns, the film holds a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score, the highest in the franchise. Reviews highlight DaCosta’s direction and the performances of Fiennes and O’Connell. Sony has confirmed a third installment following this release.

In its fifth weekend, Avatar: Fire and Ash aimed to earn $12–14 million and reached a global total of $1.23 billion. Projections expected The Bone Temple to surpass it, but the film ultimately fell short of those estimates.

Both 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Avatar: Fire and Ash are currently playing in theaters.

Source: Comingsoon.net