Though it opened behind Easy methods to Prepare Your Dragon, 28 Years Later took a wholesome chew out of the theatrical field workplace throughout its opening weekend. Coupled with essential acclaim and a long-awaited return 18 years within the making, the outcomes point out a surefire success for the viral zombie franchise. But, given the oversaturation of zombie motion pictures and tv because the authentic 28 Days Later, it is value questioning how a lot life, if any, is left within the fashionable undead sequence.
Launched on June 20, 2025, 28 Years Later returns most of the principals that made the primary entry so compelling, together with director Danny Boyle, author Alex Garland, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, and extra. If 28 Years Later is profitable sufficient to warrant extra sequels, the band have to be saved collectively to take care of a transparent imaginative and prescient and a constant stage of high quality that has elevated the franchise above most traditional zombie fare.
28 Years Later
- Launch Date
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June 20, 2025
- Runtime
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126 minutes
- Director
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Danny Boyle
’28 Years Later’ Takes Audiences Again to the UK
Directed by Danny Boyle from an Alex Garland script, 28 Years Later picks up many years after the unique Rage Virus ravaged Europe. The story follows a gaggle of survivors dwelling on a quarantined island, who change into endangered when a person named Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes his younger son Spike (Edvin Ryding) to expertise a ceremony of passage on the contaminated mainland.
Upon encountering a horde of contaminated on the mainland, Jamie and Spike barely return to the island with their lives. With Spike’s mom’s sickness solely getting worse, he plans to take her to a physician on the mainland, a harmful trek for the younger boy. Regardless of the pretty easy setup, 28 Years Later is simply as fiendish and ferocious as its predecessors, because of the clever script by Garland and Boyle’s kinetic route.
’28 Years Later’s Opening Weekend Field Workplace
Opening theatrically on June 20, 2025, 28 Years Later opened at #2 on the home field workplace, grossing $32.8 million in opposition to a $60 million price range (through Field Workplace Mojo). The movie got here in second solely to the live-action remake of Easy methods to Prepare Your Dragon, which grossed $37 million domestically throughout its opening weekend.
Now, the quick assumption is that, by grossing solely half its price range in the course of the opening weekend, the film isn’t financially profitable. However think about the worldwide ticket gross sales. The movie added one other $30 million in world ticket gross sales, rising its total gross to $62 million. Recouping its manufacturing price range in the course of the opening weekend is a powerful begin, particularly since 28 Years Later boasts the franchise’s largest debut up to now.
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Including to the success, 28 Years Later is the highest-grossing zombie film since Zombieland 2: Double Faucet, which grossed $123 million worldwide however solely $27 million throughout its opening weekend. Like Double Faucet, 28 Years Later‘s success is compounded by its R-rating. Most horror motion pictures don’t hit the $60 million mark throughout their first three days of launch.
Coupled with the essential plaudits and optimistic phrase of mouth, 28 Years Later will undoubtedly proceed to chew its strategy to field workplace success. The movie holds an 89% Licensed Contemporary RT rating and a 76 Metascore, with many critics praising Boyle’s social commentary about COVID-19 and Brexit. The movie additionally carries a 7.2 IMDb score and a B CinemaScore grade, indicating pretty broad enchantment amongst non-critics.
Nonetheless, the central query looms. Does 28 Years Later‘s early field workplace success and important reward warrant extra sequels? Or has the viral zombie franchise run its course?
Will There Be One other ’28 Days Later’ Sequel?
Though the Hollywood system is in shambles, cash nonetheless speaks louder than any fan or critic. To that finish, 28 Years Later’s field workplace success suggests extra motion pictures might be made to maintain the franchise afloat. Nevertheless, a brand new trilogy was deliberate earlier than 28 Years Later was even made, considerably defending itself from the need of box-office success. The issue is that Danny Boyle is leaving the captain’s chair and handing the reins to a brand new director, which threatens to undermine the general imaginative and prescient. Not less than quickly.
On January 16, 2026, Sony Photos Releasing will launch 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. The movie, directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman), was shot back-to-back with 28 Years Later and can function a direct sequel. Alex Garland wrote the script, as he was commissioned to pen three scripts for a deliberate trilogy. Happily, Boyle confirmed that he would return to direct the third and ultimate installment of the trilogy, though no date or title has been given.
Had Boyle chosen to not return and handed the director’s chair to a different up-and-coming filmmaker, it might have spelled doom for the trilogy. The rationale the primary three motion pictures have resonated is the inventive bond between Boyle and Garland. Ending their partnership would inevitably result in hurt, irrespective of how proficient a brand new director could also be.
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But, if Boyle stays true to his phrase and certainly returns to helm the ultimate trilogy leg, then 28 Years Later has loads extra lifeblood shifting ahead. The newest entry is essentially the most financially profitable in franchise historical past, because it quickly recouped its price range in solely three days in theaters.
Wanting forward, the franchise vows to stay enticing by returning authentic franchise star and up to date Oscar winner Cillian Murphy to the fold on the finish of The Bone Temple. Murphy’s character, Jim, has been confirmed to have a major position within the untitled third chapter. As Boyle tells Display screen Rant:
“I’ve seen a tough minimize of Nia DaCosta’s movie, ‘The Bone Temple,’ and he’s launched superbly on the finish of that movie. And that clearly leads you, in the best way that you’re going to in all probability understand that Jimmy goes to be an enormous a part of the second film, having been launched within the coda of the primary film. Likewise, Cillian might be an enormous a part of the third film.”
Between the glowing evaluations and cash made, the Boyle/Garland staying intact, and Murphy’s rousing return, 28 Years Later is simply getting began and is not going wherever anytime quickly. Not even the ungodly spate of unending zombie motion pictures and TV reveals proliferating in The Strolling Useless‘s wake can have a lot bearing on the viral zombie franchise. 28 Years Later is now in theaters.