The Big Box Office Flop of 2026? The Bone Temple’s Messed-Up Rollout
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was set up to be a hit, but a rushed release and unclear marketing left it tanking at the box office.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is set to be one of the first big box office disappointments of 2026. And yet everyone who has seen it says it is better than the first movie and a great continuation to the story. The first film in this new supposed trilogy, 28 Years Later, made a global total of 151.3 million at the box office. It is looking like Bone Temple won’t even crack 65 million globally. So what happened?
A lot of people online are saying it’s the lack of appeal for zombie movies, competition in January from other horror movies, or a lack of interest in this franchise, which I reject based on the success of the rest of the movies in the franchise. For me, I think it all comes down to the release plan and rollout and a very confusing marketing plan.
For one, 28 Years Later only released on June 20 of 2025. I remember it like it was yesterday, because it was. I was on a work trip and saw the movie in a small indie theater in Austin, Texas, and it was awesome. Shoutout to Violet Crown Cinema in downtown Austin.
I didn’t love the movie as much as I wanted to, but it was an effective movie with a great storyline, a little too much setup for me, but an excellent cliffhanger that had me hooked for the second movie. A lot of buzz online felt the same. People wanted to see more of Ralph Fiennes and the Bone Temple. They wanted to figure out what the hell was going on with the Jimmies and that weird cult we were introduced to. It was a great setup from a solid movie.
Now for a major franchise, I would think you would want to spread out the hype a bit. Let the movie hit streaming, physical media, digital rental, and gather that continued word of mouth after its theatrical run, especially in a day where a lot of people watch movies at home. By the end of July, people could rent it at home. In late September, people could stream it on Netflix and buy the Blu-ray. So that gave audiences only about four months to watch the first film at home and get excited for the next one. I think it’s far too close together.
Movies need time to find audiences. And traditionally they had that time. Sequels took years in between. I just don’t understand the rush and this new trend. The Strangers tried it, and they failed with bad movies and poor box office returns. 28 Years Later is trying it to little success. Even filmmakers like Oz Perkins are cranking out three movies in less than 18 months and seeing diminishing returns each time. I love his films, and I saw both Longlegs and The Monkey in theaters, but I just didn’t have time to fit a third film into my schedule when Keeper came out. It’s a first world problem, but it was too much, too soon, even as a massive horror fan. I have kids, a day job, family events, and other things I like to do. If I can’t find time for a horror movie from one of my favorite genre directors, then will average moviegoers? Most likely not.
People need time to catch up. There is a reason why Avatar makes so much money even with several years in between sequels. People show up in droves to a Nolan movie, or a Tarantino movie, because it’s an event. It’s special. When you ram movies together like this, in some weird Frankenstein streaming/theatrical release model where you want to give the audience everything all at once, it doesn’t have that feel. I do not think that model will ever mean box office success. What works for streaming does not work in the traditional theatrical model. And really, does it even work for streaming? That is another article for another day…
The other problem was the marketing. The marketing of 28 Years Later spent a lot of time showing visuals of Ralph Fiennes and the bones and the gritty post-apocalyptic world. It felt like we were going to get that in the first movie. And we didn’t. We got a story about a boy and his parents, surviving on an island, and finding peace within the world of hell. We got a coming-of-age story more than anything, with short glimpses of this other world. And in that way, the marketing was a bit misleading, especially the trailers. But it’s even worse looking back because the Bone Temple marketing looked largely the same.
The Bone Temple marketing showed more of Ralph Fiennes again. It was focused on the creepy bone structures. It had the weirdness and the gory look and feel we thought we would get in the first movie. And that confused audiences. I have seen several Reddit threads about this movie where fans of the franchise didn’t even know it had been released. They thought they were still seeing promos for the first one. And these were people who were excited. Average general audience members had no chance. It was poor marketing which confused audiences combined with a drop on ticket sales in an awful month for movies in January.
If they had waited until June of this year, I think the movie would do much better. More exposure. More time to build an audience. More time between the movies to explain that they were different films, that this was a continuation, that it was something fresh. But as it is, the franchise is now in the dumps and is set to lose a massive amount of money, up to 100 million if you take a look at the film’s budget and marketing dollars. It is a massive loss and could bring problems for the third and final film of the new trilogy. And it shouldn’t be that way.
Nia DaCosta made a great movie by all accounts. I have a feeling most of the people like me who were kind of meh on 28 Years Later will love Bone Temple. It’s the movie they probably thought they were getting in the first one. But because of a rush to market, poor visibility for the movie in a bad month surrounded by confusing marketing, it’s become a failure.
If you can, go and buy a ticket. The film deserves it, even if the studio heads failed it.
I do agree with this take. I was a big fan of '28 Days Later' when it hit theaters. And I'm probably in the minority by liking '28 Weeks Later' even more (it has remained my favorite of the series). Admittedly, I was semi-disappointed with '28 Years Later' initially. Not sure if I expected more... or expected different... And the introduction of the Jimmies was so jarring and (seemingly) disjointed. But, somehow, it stuck with me. I though a lot about it in the few months after: "memento mori", the Jimmies, Dr. Kelson, the isolated survivors, alphas. Suddenly, I wanted to see what came next. At almost that exact point, boom - 'Bone Temple' was in theaters. I scrambled to make sure I saw it (difficult amidst lots of January ice and snow). I barely made it before it was out of theaters. Shame, because I absolutely feel that 'Bone Temple' was better than '28 Years Later'. It dives deeper, I think, and has much better acting (the scenes with Fiennes and O'Connell together were incredible). And even the barn scene was digestible - which, for me, says a lot, because I abhor and avoid torture porn (think 'Hostel', 'Texas Chainsaw', 'I Spit on Your Grave'). In the midst of the entire story, it made sense. Then, to end with the contrasting humanity of Jim (the OG) and his daughter Sam... excellent staging. As before I want to see what comes next. If they had not rushed things, if they had let things stew more, I think perhaps others would have felt drawn as I was, even overcoming my initial summer 2025 confusion and rejection of '28 Years Later'.
I was very confused when I saw info on the Bone Temple, having enjoyed the first 28 Years Later I wouldn’t consider myself a huge franchise fan but I really loved it actually. With no “Part 2” or any indication in the title that it was a sequel, I was under the impression that this was possibly a re-release or extended cut. It wasn’t until I went and did some Googling that I figured out it was a direct sequel, and you’re right in pointing out that the promo was so similar I really did think it was some kind of director’s cut when I saw the poster the first time.