‘Avatar 3′ Fends Off Struggling ’28 Days Later: The Bone Temple’ With $17 Million on MLK Weekend

The Martin Luther King Jr. weekend box office continues to fall well short of what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, as Disney/20th Century’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash” makes $17 million over the four-day period to take a fifth No. 1 at the box office over the struggling “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.”

The second installment of a planned trilogy of legacyquels to the 2002 horror classic “28 Days Later” is estimated for a $15 million 4-day opening from 3,580 theaters, roughly half of the $30 million 3-day opening for the first “28 Years Later” this past June and on par with the $15.2 million MLK opening of “The Bye Bye Man” in 2017.

This is in spite of strong reception from critics and fans of the first film who showed up on opening night, giving “The Bone Temple” Rotten Tomatoes scores of 94% critics and 90% audience to go with an A- on CinemaScore, the latter of which is rare for a horror film and is the best reception score ever for director Nia DaCosta.

But unless that word-of-mouth gets a wider audience who were alienated by the bigger thematic and tonal swings that the first “28 Years Later” made to give this series another chance, “The Bone Temple” will need overseas grosses just to get close to the $150 million global total of its predecessor. Next weekend’s hold will reveal whether a lengthy run is in the cards for this early-year horror title.

Regardless, Sony is committed to completing the “28 Years Later” trilogy, having already greenlit the final installment this past December. “28 Days Later” lead Cillian Murphy is set to return alongside director-producer Danny Boyle and writer-producer Alex Garland.

Back among the holiday holdovers, it’s pretty much sealed — if it wasn’t already — that “Zootopia 2” will end up being Hollywood’s highest grossing film of 2025 rather than “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

While “Fire and Ash” is still No. 1 this weekend and has passed $350 million domestic and $1.3 billion worldwide, it will not pass the $423 million domestic totals of “A Minecraft Movie” or the “Lilo & Stitch” remake, and its global total is now expected by theatrical sources to finish somewhere in the vicinity of $1.5 billion after passing $1.3 billion this weekend.

In an interview last week with TVBS in Taiwan, series creator and director James Cameron said that if he and Disney move forward with completing his planned five-film “Avatar” saga, the last two installments will need to be produced at a lower budget based on the box office returns for “Fire and Ash,” which is still a big hit for Disney but is showing that even the Na’vi are not immune to the law of diminishing returns.

“Zootopia 2,” meanwhile,” has passed Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” as Hollywood’s highest grossing film of all time with $1.7 billion worldwide. The film added $12 million this MLK weekend to bring its domestic total to $390 million, as its incredible legs put it on pace to pass the $423 million domestic runs of “A Minecraft Movie” and “Lilo & Stitch” to become the top domestic grosser of 2025.

Lionsgate’s “The Housemaid” may not be putting up such sky-high numbers, but it is a hit all its own as it becomes the first film from the studio in two years to pass $100 million domestic, adding $10.1 million over MLK weekend. The Paul Feig thriller now stands at $108 million domestic and $247.3 million worldwide.

Also hitting a big milestone is A24’s “Marty Supreme,” which with $6.6 million on MLK weekend has passed $80 million domestic and set a new studio record previously held by “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” With two months between now and Oscar Sunday and plenty of word-of-mouth behind it thanks to Timothee Chalamet’s acclaimed performance, it is likely to become the first A24 film to gross $100 million in the U.S.

Outside the top 5, Paramount’s “Primate” is set to add $6 million over four days, bringing its total to $20.5 million after two weekends as it will likely post a modest profit against its reported $21 million budget.

On the prestige side, Neon’s Korean satire “No Other Choice” continues its solid run in targeted release with $2.6 million from 695 screens, bringing its total to $6.5 million.

Focus Features’ “Hamnet,” fresh off winning the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture — Drama, added $1.6 million from 718 theaters this weekend for a $15 million total as it is set to expand further next weekend.

Finally, newcomer distributor Row K Entertainment released the Gus Van Sant thriller “Dead Man’s Wire” in 1,101 theaters, where it is set to gross just $1.2 million over four days. The film stars Bill Skarsgard in a dramatization of a 1977 incident in which Indianapolis resident Tony Kiritsis held a mortgage broker he believed was trying to cheat him hostage with a shotgun. “Dead Man’s Wire” debuted at the Venice Film Festival last year and has a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score.

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