It’s been over 17 years since Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later hit theaters, and now he’s finally back at the helm of the newest entry in the franchise 28 Years Later. As the title suggests, the new film moves 28 years further into the timeline after the rage virus has taken hold, and despite the lengthy time between releases, the audience has shown it still loves the franchise. 28 Days Later is going to have the highest opening weekend of the franchise, and it will also be Boyle’s biggest opening ever. While it won’t come in at number 1 (thanks to How to Train Your Dragon), it is still mostly good news for the franchise’s third entry.
Videos by ComicBook.com
According to Deadline, 28 Years Later is going to end up with a $30 to $31 million opening over the course of the weekend, and that will land it in second place behind How to Train Your Dragon, which is likely to end its second weekend with $35.7 million. 28 Years Later’s $30 million estimate makes it the top opening for the entire franchise, as 28 Days Later opened with over $10 million while 28 Weeks Later opened with north of $9 million, so it’s not even a close comparison.
This also makes 28 Years Later the highest opening movie of Boyle’s career, surpassing the previous top spot holder Yesterday and its $17 million opening weekend in 2019. Currently, 28 Years Later holds a B Cinemascore, but the Rotten Tomatoes critics and audience scores are a bit at odds. The critics score currently holds an impressive 90% rating, while the audience score is quite a bit down from that, currently sitting at 66%.
ComicBook’s Spencer Perry gave the film a 4 out of 5 in his review, noting that despite a flood of other Zombie-related films and games having been released since the last entry in the franchise, 28 Years Later finds a way to distinguish itself and remain captivating.
“Horror scholars can give a lot of credit to 28 Days Later for revitalizing the zombie subgenre when it first premiered, and in the two decades since then, we’ve seen a lot of ideas thrown at it on film, television, and in games. That’s what makes 28 Years Later so satisfying; despite being on the opposite side of that surge in undead media, it has still found a way to make itself stand out. 28 Years Later is not only a wholly captivating blockbuster, but one with layers that will keep us talking until the second movie comes out, which is the only trouble. On its own, 28 Years Later needs what will follow it to feel whole, even if what we’ve been given already is still entertaining as hell,” Perry wrote.
As for the rest of the top 5, Pixar’s newest film Elio takes the number 3 spot with an expected first week total of $22 million, while Lilo & Stitch is still doing great in its fifth week with another $9.7 million. Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning rounds out the top 5 with a fifth week total of $7.1 million. Materialists ($6 million), Ballerina ($4.6 million), Karate Kid: Legends ($2.4 million), and Final Destination: Bloodlines ($1.9 million) finish out the top 10.
Have you seen 28 Years Later, and what did you think? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things movies with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Netflix.
