It was yet another big weekend for horror at the summer box office as director Danny Boyle’s very long awaited 28 Years Later finally hit theaters. We’ve been waiting so long for this movie that it was at one time going to be titled 28 Months later, carrying on the tradition of his original zombie classic 28 Days Later. In any event, the long wait didn’t disappoint as it posted one of the biggest opening weekends at the box office for a zombie movie in quite some time.
See also: 28 YEARS LATER Is A Distinctly British Horror Movie – And That’s Terrifying
28 Years Later opened to an estimated $30 million domestically to go with another $30 million overseas for a $60 million global debut. It didn’t top the charts, losing out to How to Train Your Dragon ($37 million), but that hardly matters. R-rated horror movie vs. family-friendly blockbuster tends to break this way. Even so, it’s a damn fine start for a movie with a $60 million production budget, which is good because $60 million is definitely on the high end for a horror movie – particularly a zombie movie. These have often been low-budget affairs that find success, dating back to George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.
The biggest zombie movie ever was 2013’s World War Z, which skirted near-disaster and made $540 million worldwide against a hulking $190 million budget. From there we have to stretch a bit. If one considers Hotel Transylvania a zombie movie (I personally don’t), that made $358 million worldwide after a $42 million opening in 2012. As far as true, live-action zombie movies go, this is the biggest entry the genre has produced since Zombieland: Double Tap ($27 million opening/$123 million worldwide) in 2019.
Sony bet big on Boyle and writer Alex Garland to deliver the goods and, at least in the early going, that bet is paying off. Critics have been very kind to 28 Years Later thus far, even if audiences are slightly more mixed. The key is going to be holding its own against stiff competition such as M3GAN 2.0 and F1, which both open this upcoming weekend.
The film picks up almost three decades since the rage virus first emerged and largely focuses on a small group of survivors who live on a small island connected to the mainland by a single causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission to the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders and horrors that have altered both the infected and the other survivors. The cast includes Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes.
The studio already has a sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, due to hit theaters in January 2026. Directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman), that one is already filmed and ready to go. Boyle and Garland have a third movie planned, but it all depends on how these first two movies do. At the very least, things are off to a very encouraging start.
28 Years Later is in theaters now. For more, get the lowdown on what’s going on with Hatchet 5.
