Avatar SHATTERS Records! Is This the Future of Blockbusters?!

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend was a bit of a snooze fest stateside at the Box Office, but Disney continued its global domination, racking up some serious milestones. *Zootopia 2* has officially become the highest-grossing MPA animated film *ever*, raking in a staggering $1.7 billion. And, not to be outdone, James Cameron’s *Avatar: Fire and Ash* has now surpassed $1.3 billion. So yeah, Disney’s basically printing money. These two juggernauts have secured the Mouse House the top spot for global box office releases for the last eight weeks running.

Avatar SHATTERS Records! Is This the Future of Blo...

Meanwhile, Sony's *28 Years Later: The Bone Temple* made its global debut, though it had a somewhat lukewarm opening here in the US, earning $13 million over three days and $15 million over the extended holiday weekend. However, things looked brighter overseas. The film snagged the No. 1 spot in the UK with $4.6 million and in Mexico with $1.5 million. Globally, the film's weekend haul, including that domestic $15 million, sits at a respectable $31.2 million. That puts it in fourth place among major studio releases worldwide, coming from over 10,100 screens in 61 markets.

Interestingly, the *28 Years Later* franchise has a history of strong UK openings – the previous film opened at No. 1 there with $6.4 million (back in mid-June). And let’s face it, different horror subgenres resonate differently across the globe. Gore, for example, tends to play well in Germany but doesn't always land in Latin America (with the exception of Mexico, of course). Supernatural horror, on the other hand, tends to do well in Catholic countries, the Philippines, and across Asia. The original *28 Years Later* film grossed $80.8 million internationally (including $21 million in the UK, unadjusted for inflation), for a total global take of $151.3 million. Next up? South Korea will be putting *Bone Temple* to the test.

The production cost is reportedly $63 million net, thanks to those oh-so-sweet UK tax credits (with TSG allegedly covering about half the budget). Add another $70 million for marketing, and the big question is: will this sequel turn a profit? Word on the street is that director Danny Boyle, writer Alex Garland, and producer Peter Rice are collectively earning around $15 million per film. Some whisper that these movies *could* be made for considerably less, but the inevitable bidding wars can really inflate costs.

*Bone Temple* did snag a decent A- CinemaScore domestically, but building an audience after that slightly less-than-stellar reception of the previous film is going to be a challenge. Personally, I think delaying the release to allow the original *28 Years Later* to build more momentum on streaming platforms might have been a smarter play. Could have created more buzz, you know? Anyway, we’ll see how it all shakes out.