Boots. Boots. Boots. Boots. Moving up and down again. That haunting first trailer hooked fans and grabbed the attention of new audiences and now 28 Years Later is finally here. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are executing a new trilogy with these follow-up movies and our own Chris Bumbray had a scary good time with the first installment (although he does feel it’s far from perfect). In his review, he says, “This is a much more ambitious film than the original, designed to kick off a trilogy that tackles how society might rebuild itself decades after such a catastrophic event. […] I had a good time with 28 Years Later, with [Aaron Taylor] Johnson, [Jodie] Comer, and especially [Ralph] Fiennes delivering nuanced performances—though, again, [Alfie] Williams is the true star. I’ll definitely be watching 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple when it comes out next year.”
Deadline is now reporting that the zombie dystopian film is seeing a swarm for its first audiences and grossed over $5 million in early Thursday showings. Comparatively, the recent Final Destination: Bloodlines started with $5.5 million in Thursday previews and had the best opening weekend of the franchise with $51.6 million at the box office. Horror films are often regarded as front-loaded, unless it’s a movie like Sinners, which also emphasized its presentation with IMAX screens and extended its run on demand. 28 Years Later has collected a critics’ aggregate rating of 92%, while audiences were less forgiving with a score of 68%. However, many may not be aware that this film is built to set up future sequels.
Meanwhile, on the family-friendly side, Elio had two nights of previews and has brought in around $2.5 million to $3 million in early screenings. This early estimate parallels Pixar’s 2023 film, Elemental, which previewed to similar numbers and ended up earning $11.7 million on its Friday and $29.6 million for the opening weekend. Our Editor-in-Chief was not receptive to Elio, as the final product had suffered from behind-the-scenes shake-ups. He says in his review, “We’ll never know how the original concept for Elio might have worked out as a film. I can guess it would have been a quieter, more sensitive movie than the one we got. With so much money on the line, Pixar has retrofitted this into a big, bright comedy—but in a summer already dominated by family fare, this seems all but certain to perform poorly. One can’t help but think the studio should have just stuck to their guns and put out the original.”
