FRIDAY PM: Na’vi and the Infected are locked in a battle for No. 1 over what is a very sluggish MLK weekend. The major motion picture studios, in their commitment to theatrical, forgot to release more wide entries, Sony being the only one to have the grit to take on the fifth weekend of 20th Century Studio’s Avatar: Fire and Ash with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Currently both are looking at $15M over four days.
Last year, the fifth weekend of Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King led with $15.4M over four days with Sony’s One of Them Days in second with $14M and Universal/Blumhouse’s Wolf Man — which was expected to well but did not — debuting at $12.2M. The entire Friday-Monday frame came in at $94.2M. Let’s hope we’re not lower.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple currently is seeing a $5.8M Friday, which includes Thursday night’s $2.1M. Heading into the weekend, analytics firm RelishMix measured the sequel’s social media universe at 186.3M across YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram, which is 17% behind where 28 Years Later was this summer but 1% ahead of the social media reach of other horror franchise genre norms. “The 28 Years cast are not big drivers with the two leads off the grid and Chi Louis Parry bringing 131K fans and Emma Laird with 108K,” reports RelishMix.
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The top 6 are as follows:
Avatar: Fire & Ash (20th) 3,300 theaters, Fri $3M, 3-day $13.7M (-36%), 4-day $15M, Total $365M/Wk 5
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony) 3,506 theaters, Fri $5.8M, 3-day $13M, 4-day $15M/Wk 1
Zootopia 2 (Dis) 3,100 theaters, Fri $2M, 3-day $10M (even), 4-day $12.8M, Total $394M/Wk 8
The Housemaid (LG) 3,101 theaters, Fri $2.3M, 3-day $8.4M, 4-day $10M, Total $108.6M/Wk 5
Marty Supreme (A24) 2,027 theaters, Fri $1.6M, 3-day $5.2M (-27%), 4-day $6.5M, Total $80.1M/Wk 5 (By Saturday, the Timothée Chalamet awards contender will surpass Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s $77.1M to become A24’s highest-grossing movie at the domestic B.O.).
Primate (Par) 2,964 theaters, Fri $1.4M, 3-day $5.2M (-53%), 4-day $6.3M, Total $20.8M/Wk 2
FRIDAY AM: Sony’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has begun the MLK weekend with $2.1 million in previews from 2 p.m. showtimes Thursday. As expected, that’s lower than last summer’s $5.8M previews for 28 Years Later, with that movie’s Thursday boosted by Juneteenth holiday moviegoers.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is really the only major studio wide release of the MLK weekend. It’s expected to do $20M-$22M over the four days against Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s fifth weekend, which is expected to land around $19M over four days. 28 Years Later opened to $30M in June 2025 after a $14.4M Friday plus previews. That movie was directed by franchise co-architect Danny Boyle, while the follow-up here is helmed by Candyman director Nia DaCosta.
28 Years Later last summer skewed 75% over 25, 62% male. Men over 25 repped close to half of the audience, while women over 25 showed up at 37%, the second biggest demographic.
Critics love Bone Temple at 94%, and the current PostTrak score is 4.5 stars out of 5.
Here’s how the rest of the top 5 went down for the week:
Avatar: Fire and Ash (20th) 3,700 theaters Wk $28.9M (-47%), Total $350M/Wk 4
The Housemaid (LG) 3,123 theaters, Wk $15.6M (-29%), Total $98.6M/Wk 4 (the Paul Feig-directed pic is crossing $100M domestic today
Primate (Par) 2,964 theaters, Wk $14.5M/Wk 1
Zootopia 2 (Dis) 3,200 theaters Wk $12.4M (-48%), Total $381.2M/Wk 7
Marty Supreme (A24) 2,512 theaters, Wk $10.9M (-42%), Total $73.4M/Wk 4