It appears as though the long wait was worth it for many horror lovers around the world because 28 Years Later has passed a major milestone at the box office. Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland’s very long-awaited third entry in the 28 franchise following 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later has crossed the $150 million mark globally after its sixth weekend in theaters. While the movie’s run is winding down, it can put a pretty impressive feather in its cap.
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Despite not charting in the top ten domestically, 28 Years Later added another $565,000 from North American audiences over the weekend. It also, rather crucially, pulled in an additional $1 million overseas. That gives it a new running total of $150 million worldwide. That total includes $70 million from domestic ticket sales and $80 million internationally. It’s also 2.5 times the movie’s reported $60 million production budget.
That’s rather crucial because it’s probably just enough to give Sony the confidence to green light Boyle and Garland’s planned third entry in the new trilogy. Director Nia DaCosta has already filmed 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Sony has that on deck for a January 2026 release currently. A third entry has been planned from the beginning, with Cillian Murphy’s Jim set to return in a major role. However, Sony has yet to commit to production on that third movie. It was always dependent on this movie’s performance. So far, so good.
Even though the movie’s run is approaching its end, it currently stands as the third-biggest outright horror movie of the year behind only Final Destination Bloodlines ($285.3 million) and Sinners ($365.8 million). Jurassic World Rebirth has made $718.3 million and to whatever degree one wants to consider that horror, that could arguably bump 28 Years Later to fourth place. We here at Fango count the Jurassic films as horror but setting that debate aside for a moment, this is still great company to be in.
This is all pretty impressive considering that 28 Weeks Later came out way back in 2007. Yet, for nearly two decades, audiences continued to wish for another entry in the series. The whole thing dragged on so long that this was originally supposed to be 28 Months Later. In any event, when the time finally came, Boyle and Garland reunited to deliver the goods. Here’s hoping they get to round out the trilogy as planned.
28 Years Later is in theaters and on VOD now. For more, check out the latest trailer for It: Welcome to Derry.
