28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Struggling Against Avatar 3 at MLK Weekend Box Office

The 28 Years Later franchise is back at cinemas, just seven months after the previous installment brought the zombie movie series back to life. Now it is battling headwinds as it struggles against holdover Avatar: Fire and Ash at the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend box office despite strong reviews and audience reactions.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple scored $5.6 million on Friday, and is looking to notch around $15 million during the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. That’s far behind the first 28 Years, which opened to a $30 million three-day number in June, and behind the $20 million initially projected for Bone Temple going into the weekend.

Avatar 3, now in its fifth weekend, brought in $3.2 million on Friday, and could end up with $17 million to win the four-day weekend. So far, the film has collected $353.4 million domestically and more than $1.23 billion globally.

The 28 Years Later franchise hails from director Boyle and writer Alex Garland, who brought the film series to Sony after a heated bidding war. Filmmaker Nia DaCosta is in the director’s chair for Bone Temple, the second part in a planned trilogy, with Sony saying last month that it will make a third installment with Cillian Murphy — star of the original 28 Days Later — with Boyle returning to direct.

Sony insiders are hopeful that word of mouth could give Bone Temple legs. The feature earned strong reviews (94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), an A- CinemaScore (a rare high grade for a horror film) and a 4.5 PostTrak rating. Bone Temple stars Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Erin Kellyman and Chi Lewis-Parry.

Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet expands after it took home best drama at the Golden Globes Jan. 11, with Oscar contender Jesse Buckley winning the actress prize. The film, which opened in limited release over Thanksgiving, upped its count to 718 theaters this weekend and is expected to bring in $1.6 million for the four-day frame, bringing its domestic total to $15 million. Focus Features plans further expansion after Oscar nominations are announced.

Filmmaker Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme has become an overperformer since its Christmas release, and observers are curious if it will get a bump following Timothée Chalamet’s best actor win at the Globes. It looks to bring in around $6.9 million for the four-day frame, which would bring the domestic total to a winning $80 million.