Last June, 28 Years Later grossed $151.3 million on a reported $60 million budget. Throw in marketing costs, and that was a poor result. Earlier this year, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple massively underperformed, earning a mere $58.5 million worldwide despite costing roughly the same to produce.
The first movie was helmed by 28 Days Later director Danny Boyle, with Candyman's Nia DaCosta stepping in for the second instalment. The latter was in production when 28 Years Later was released, and Boyle has made it clear that a third instalment happening—putting Cillian Murphy's Jim front and centre—was down to Sony Pictures.
Neither film could be considered a financial success, but with Murphy set to return, it seems Sony is banking on his presence being enough to sell tickets.
Talking to JoBlo (via FearHQ.com), Boyle confirmed that 28 Days Later 3 is still moving forward and revealed that filming has been pushed to 2027. "We ran out of time," he explained. "Because it’s set in an area of Britain [where] you can only film at certain times of the year. We ran out of time this year — we literally ran out of time."
"So it’ll be, hopefully, fingers crossed next year," the filmmaker continued. "But there’s the enthusiasm there, and Alex [Garland] has done a wonderful script for it."
Both 28 Years Later movies were pretty out there, and didn't really have much in common with 28 Days Later, a fairly traditional "zombie" survival thriller. It still had something to say about humans being as monstrous as those infected by the Rage Virus, but these follow-ups went to some weird, non-mainstream places (Jimmy Saville-inspired ninjas, for example).
Reviews for both were glowing, though audiences seemed to respond more positively to DaCosta's movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, 28 Years Later has 63% on the Popcornmeter, compared to The Bone Temple's "Verified Hot" 88%.
"Our plan is that [Cillian Murphy] will be an enormous character in the third film in the way that Jack O'Connell’s character — who you see briefly at the end of the first film — is an enormous character with Ralph Fiennes in the [second] film," Boyle previously explained.
Addressing the uncertainty last year, writer Alex Garland said, "It’s strange: there’s a story, there’s a plan, there’s a structure. These three films are in some ways distinct from each other, in other ways interrelated, because there are characters that have a through line throughout all of them, although they are also essentially separate stories. It makes it, in filmmaking terms, have something in common with television."
Will the next 28 Years Later movie happen? It's now been written, and Boyle is ready to go next year, so things are looking promising. Whether Murphy's involvement will be enough to make it a box office hit remains to be seen.