The Best Horror Movie of 2026 Is Bombing At The Box Office & It’s Terrible News For The Future

2026 is a particularly exciting one for horror films. Robert Eggers will be following up his Nosferatu with Werwulf. Zach Cregger will be the one to finally adapt Resident Evil to the satisfaction of both fans and general audiences. Ghostface will return for what may very well be the final time in Scream 7 (it sure does look as though it’s positioning itself as a tied bow on the franchise). And, having moved on from Mr. Ghostface, Radio Silence is returning back to game night with Ready or Not: Here I Come, which looks genuinely fantastic. But it won’t be the first fantastic horror movie of 2026. January is well-known to feature horror movies, but they’re rarely of strong quality. This January, however, has been phenomenal for the genre.

First, Primate earned better reviews than many were expecting. And, capping off the month is Sam Raimi’s long-awaited return to the world of horror with Send Help, which looks like a blast. But Send Help will also be the final nail in the coffin of the month’s best horror film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The question is, what does that mean for the future of the IP?

Will We Get Round Three of 28 Years Later?

Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later is by no means a bad film, but Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is an improvement in every regard. The first movie set some necessary ground for The Bone Temple to really play with, but all due credit to the immensely talented DaCosta for hopping into this world and crafting the deepest of the four total movies.

But this is the real world, and quality doesn’t always amount to ticket sales, and this is one hundred percent the case with The Bone Temple. Let’s put it into context.

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First off, 28 Years Later had a budget of $60 million while The Bone Temple had a price tag of $63 million. It needed to do as well as Boyle’s 2025 movie. Specifically, it needed to open to about $30 million or, if opening lower, leg it out to $70 million domestically and a further $80 million from overseas markets.

Instead, it opened to $14.4 million over a four-day weekend, making less than half of what its predecessor made over the course of just three days. Worse yet, it dropped a massive 71.2% for a $3.6 million sophomore weekend. That’s even worse than the 67.5% drop experienced by last year’s movie. Sure, part of that can be chalked up to Winter Storm Fern, but it can still now be said with confidence that The Bone Temple is a bomb. It hasn’t even done particularly well overseas, with a domestic tally of $20.7 million after weekend two and an international total of $25.3 million. And that’s really about all it’s going to make. We’re going to continue to get swift drops on this one, especially with the release of Send Help grabbing the attention of horror fans.

It’s deeply unfortunate that The Bone Temple has suffered, because it’s genuinely phenomenal. It’s the second-best of the franchise after 28 Days Later. Its emotional beats hit like sledgehammers, Ralph Fiennes continues to shine, and Jack O’Connell is even better here than he was in Sinners and Money Monster (in which he was the undisputable highlight of a painfully average film).

And, if we’re being honest, it’s questionable whether it will even find its audience on streaming. On one hand, people may give it a shot and then spread word that it’s far better than its predecessor but, on the other, they might not give it a shot at all because its predecessor turned them off so much.

All of this is to say that the tag scene at the end is likely pointing towards a future film that may never come. Then again, there’s absolutely a way to sell this film.

It could serve as a soft reboot. It’s continuing Spike’s story but, as anyone who has seen The Bone Temple knows, Cillian Murphy’s Jim is once more involved. Murphy is a bankable performer in the industry, especially after Oppenheimer. 28 Days Later fans who sat out The Bone Temple would definitely buy a ticket to a third 28 Years just to see how the protagonist they fell in love with is doing.

As for general audiences, it’s a little more questionable. Murphy is bankable, but is he bankable enough to get people onboard for a grim and gruesome zombie film? If the budget was trimmed down (at least they don’t have to pay for an elaborate bone temple set now) it wouldn’t even need to appeal to each and every age demo. But either way it would definitely appeal to general audiences more than The Bone Temple which not only required one to have seen 28 Years Later but also needed them to know who Jimmy Savile was. It’s a very niche narrative, split between a satanist referencing an abuser and a doctor coated in orange who lives amongst bones.

In short, it would make sense if Sony didn’t go ahead with a third 28 Years Later. However, it doesn’t have to be the gamble it appears to be. It inherently seems as though it would have a more straightforward Night of the Living Dead-style survival in a farmhouse story. That budget could be kept low. At the very least it would outgross The Bone Temple.

Do you want a third 28 Years Later? Let us know in the comments.