Avatar: Fire and Ash Outshines 28 Years Later at Box Office with $17M+ Weekend Take

SATURDAY AM:It appears that James Cameron’s Na’Vi are outperforming Sony’s Infected at the MLK box office.Avatar: Fire and Ashis heading toward a$17.6M four-day fifth weekend while 28 Days Later: The Bone Templeis coming in significantly below $20M+ tracking estimates with$15M(rivals see it much lower). With a 3-day total of $13.2M, it ranks as the second highest debut in the Danny Boyle-Alex Garland series, following last June’s release.28 Years Later ($30M).

At that level for The Bone Temple, That’s disappointing. No one, not even Sony, wanted to see it perform at that level, particularly as the only major film released over the MLK weekend. On the bright side, the fourth installment in the British zombie series, directed by Nia DaCosta, written by Alex Garland, and produced by Danny Boyle, received an A- CinemaScore, as well as a strong 72% definite recommendation on Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak, which is better than the B CinemaScore and 52% definite recommendation from the previous one.28 Years Later. Will positive word of mouth take effect? I’m not sure…

Here’s the thing, although Sony was in need of franchises and enjoys promoting auteur-driven content, this is a very specific horror series, extremely graphic, somewhat intellectual, and focused on zombies. It’s not a horror franchise aimed at the general public. WhileBone Temple performed adequately last summer, but it didn’t reach the high standards one would anticipate for a long-awaited series, and the audience ratings were decent, though not exceptional. Following that, even if the sequel here receives a more positive audience response, it’s challenging to capitalize on and significantly improve moviegoers’ perceptions of the earlier film. Consider the box office formula that whenever a long-awaited sequel with some level of fan support is released (28 Years Later releasing in cinemas 18 years later28 Week Later), it’s appropriate to release a debut record for the franchise. Any following sequel usually experiences a drop in its opening, as seen in 2020’s.Bad Boys for Life posts the highest debut ever for the series at $62.5M, while the 2024 sequelBad Boys: Live or Diedrops 10% lower with a $56.5 million debut. Another example:Star Wars: Force Awakens opens to $247.9M, while Last Jedi starts at $220M, -11%. There is a wider difference in the openings here forBone Temple and 28 Years Later, -56%.

Let’s explore where international factors come into play forBone Temple, The film has a 98% offshore presence. Assuming the net production cost of $63 million is accurate, it’s essential to save this sequel globally.

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FRIDAY PM:The Na’vi and the Infected are competing for No. 1 during a slow MLK holiday weekend. Major film studios, in their dedication to cinema, failed to release more widely available titles, with Sony being the only one to have the courage to challenge the fifth week of 20th Century Studio’s release.Avatar: Fire and Ash with28 Years Later: The Temple of Bones. Right now both are observing$15M over four days.

Last year, the fifth weekend at Disney’sMufasa: The Lion King led to $15.4M in four days with Sony’s One of Them Days second with $14M and Universal/Blumhouse’sWolf Man— which was anticipated to perform well but did not — opened with $12.2M. The total for the Friday-Monday period reached $94.2M. Let’s hope we don’t see a decline.

28 Years Later: The Temple of Bonescurrently is earning $5.8M on Friday, which encompasses the $2.1M made on Thursday night. As the weekend approaches, the analytics company RelishMix reported the sequel’s social media presence at 186.3M across YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook, and Instagram, which is 17% less than where28 Years Later last summer but 1% ahead of the social media presence of other horror franchise standards. “The28 Years“Cast members are not major drawcards, with the two leads starting from the back of the grid and Chi Louis Parry attracting 131K fans, while Emma Laird has 108K,” reports RelishMix.

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The leading six are listed below:

FRIDAY AM: Sony’s 28 Years Later: The Temple of Boneshas started the MLK weekend with $2.1 million in advance sales from 2 p.m. screenings on Thursday. As anticipated, this is less than last summer’s $5.8 million in advance sales for28 Years Later, by that film’s Thursday performance, which was supported by Juneteenth holiday audiences.

28 Years Later: The Temple of Bonesis truly the only significant studio-wide release for the MLK weekend. It’s projected to earn $20M-$22M over the four days againstAvatar: Fire and Ashits fifth weekend, which is projected to reach approximately $19M over four days.28 Years Later opened to $30 million in June 2025 following a $14.4 million gross on Friday along with previews. That film was directed by franchise co-creator Danny Boyle, while the sequel is led byCandyman director Nia DaCosta.

28 Years Later Last summer, 75% of the audience was over 25, with 62% being male. Men over 25 made up nearly half of the attendees, while women over 25 accounted for 37%, representing the second-largest group.

Critics love Bone TempleAt 94%, and the current PostTrak rating is 4.5 stars out of 5.

Here’s how the remaining top 5 concluded for the week: