’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Already Exciting Theaters Following Box Office Drop-Off!!

After another disappointing week at the domestic box office, Sony‘s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple spiraled down the charts and dropped out of the top 10 list. The movie hasn’t yet recovered its reported budget and has only grossed a third of last year’s 28 Years Later, which itself was seen as an underperformer. However, both 28 Years Later and The Bone Temple received positive reviews, and Sony bullishly announced that a third film would be produced following positive early reactions to the sequel. The trilogy’s status remains unclear now, following The Bone Temple‘s disastrous performance.

The movie debuted in more than 3,000 domestic theaters earlier this month and has since grossed just $23 million. With an additional $30 million from international markets, the film’s cumulative global haul stands at $53 million. The Bone Temple cost a reported $63 million to produce, and debuted with franchise-best reviews. It scored higher than even 28 Days Later, with which the franchise began more than two decades ago.

The horror sequel’s third-weekend haul was affected by a massive decrease in its theatrical footprint. The Bone Temple was removed from nearly 1,500 theaters this past weekend, when it grossed just $1.6 million. The original film was headlined by Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy, who appears in a cameo at the end of The Bone Temple.

’28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Is the Top-Rated Installment of the Series

The new film seems to have settled at a “Certified Fresh” 93% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, and features Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, and Alfie Williams reprising their roles from 28 Years Later. This near-perfect score puts it ahead of both its direct predecessor, 28 Years Later, which sits at 88%, and the original franchise-starter, 28 Days Later, which holds the lowest score at 87%.

The movie still trails last year’s 28 Years Later by around $100 million, and the two-decade-old 28 Days Later by around $30 million. Both movies were directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. As things stand, it could become the franchise’s lowest-grossing installment, behind even the largely sidelined 28 Weeks Later, which made over $70 million in 2007. The Bone Temple was directed by Nia DaCosta, who is having a rough time at the box office; three years ago, she directed the biggest Marvel Cinematic Universe bomb of all time, The Marvels. The Bone Temple‘s theater drop is massive, but the record rests with 2020’s The Rhythm Section, which lost nearly 3,000 theaters in its third weekend of release.