Even though there was a lot of excitement, Nia DaCosta's horror-zombie sequel 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple didn't do as well as expected at the box office during the long Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Avatar: Fire and Ash took the top spot with an estimated $17.8 million over four days, including $14.5 million for the three-day weekend.
Sony's The Bone Temple is expected to make about $15 million over four days, with $13 million coming from the three-day weekend.
(Exact numbers will be known after Tuesday's results.) That's much less than the opening of the first film, 28 Years Later, which made $30 million in its three-day debut in June 2025 and eventually earned $151 million worldwide. It also fell short of the predicted $20 million domestic opening.
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The 28 Years Later franchise was created by director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, who brought the series to Sony after a competitive bidding process.
Nia DaCosta is now directing Bone Temple, the second movie in what is planned to be a trilogy. Sony announced last month that they will make a third movie with Cillian Murphy, who starred in the original 28 Days Later, and Danny Boyle will return as director. It's unclear how this weekend's performance might affect these plans. In 2002, 28 Days Later only made $10 million at first but became a big hit and changed the zombie genre.
Sony is still hopeful that good word of mouth could help Bone Temple do better.
The movie received strong reviews (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), a rare A- CinemaScore for a horror film, and a 4.5 PostTrak rating. The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Jack O'Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman, and Chi Lewis-Parry.
Avatar 3, now in its fifth weekend, stayed in first place as it moves toward the $400 million mark in the US.
So far, it has made an estimated $358 million domestically and over $1.2 billion globally.
James Cameron's threequel wasn't the only Disney movie making news.
Zootopia 2 became the highest-grossing animated film of all time globally during the MLK weekend, beating Disney/Pixar's Inside Out 2 (not adjusted for inflation). It is also the ninth highest-grossing film of all time, with earnings over $1.7 billion, including $390 million domestically and $1.3 billion internationally.
Zootopia 2 made an estimated $12 million over four days, including $9.2 million for the three-day weekend.
The Sydney Sweeney-Amanda Seyfried movie The Housemaid continued to do well for Lionsgate, dropping only 21% in its fifth weekend to an estimated $8.6 million for the three days and $10.2 million for the four days.
It's now expected to cross $100 million domestically and could reach $250 million sometime this week, which is a big achievement.
Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme came in fifth.
From A24, the movie has been doing better than expected since its Christmas release. Experts predicted it would get a boost after Timothée Chalamet won best actor at the Golden Globes last weekend. It made an estimated $6.7 million for the four days, including $5.5 million for the three days. With a domestic total of $80 million through Sunday, it has now surpassed Oscar winner Everything Everywhere All at Once to become A24's top-performing movie of all time.
At the specialty and awards box office, Chloé Zhao's Hamnet, another award contender, expanded its showings after winning best drama at the Golden Globes on January 11.
Oscar hopeful Jesse Buckley won the best actress award. The film, which initially played in a few theaters in November, added more showings around Christmas and again this weekend. Playing in 718 theaters, it earned an estimated $1.6 million for the four days, bringing its domestic total to $15 million. Focus plans to expand further after Oscar nominations are announced. Hamnet's producers, Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes, are actively promoting the film for awards.
January 18, 8:30 a.m.: Updated with Sunday estimates.
January 19, 8:35 a.m.: Updated with Monday estimates.
This story was originally published on January 17 at 8:15 a.m.
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