28 YEARS LATER's CinemaScore Revealed - But Can That Or ELIO Dethrone HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON At Box Office?

28 YEARS LATER's CinemaScore Revealed - But Can That Or ELIO Dethrone HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON At Box Office?

28 Years Later and Elio both opened in theaters this weekend, but neither will manage to dethrone the live-action How to Train Your Dragon. Do their respective CinemaScores have anything to do with it?

By JoshWilding - Jun 21, 2025 05:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Horror

It's another big weekend for new releases, but none of them will quite manage to dethrone How to Train Your Dragon. According to Deadline, 28 Years Later earned $14 million at the North American box office on Friday for an expected $28 million - $30 million opening weekend. 

That's a decent result, and one that places it in front of 2022's Scream and last year's Longlegs. However, with the live-action How to Train Your Dragon still proving a big draw for audiences, 28 Years Later won't top its expected $35.2 million haul. 

Not helping Danny Boyle's long-awaited 28 Days Later follow-up is a B CinemaScore. That's on par with the likes of Abigail, M3GAN, and Smile 2, but below this year's breakout horror hit, Sinners

Why the lower-than-expected score after receiving 90% on Rotten Tomatoes (its audience score is 67%)? It may have something to do with that divisive, controversial ending. 

The pressure is on 28 Years Later to deliver. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple has already been shot by The Marvels helmer Nia DaCosta, but Boyle's planned third instalment revolving around Cillian Murphy's Jim hasn't been greenlit. 

Pixar's latest, Elio, has an A CinemaScore. That's impressive, as it's the same as classics like Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Ratatouille. Unfortunately, with an expected $22 million - $24 million after a $9 million Friday, it's expected to be Pixar's lowest opening to date.  

Clearly, How to Train Your Dragon is a bigger priority for families. Whether F1: The Movie will open at #1 next weekend remains to be seen, though it seems likely. From there, Jurassic World Rebirth will dominate until Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps come along.

In 28 Years Later, it's been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway.

When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.

28 Years Later arrives in theaters on June 20, 2025

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JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 6/21/2025, 6:28 AM
Save your money for July.
BisonScarBlood
BisonScarBlood - 6/21/2025, 6:49 AM
@JacobsLadder - Yeah, fireworks!
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AllsGood
AllsGood - 6/21/2025, 7:00 AM
@JacobsLadder - July experts are expecting breaking Box Office Records.
dragon316
dragon316 - 6/21/2025, 8:06 AM
@BisonScarBlood - fireworks safety at its finest until someone hand get blown off
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/21/2025, 8:16 AM
@AllsGood - isn't that kinda always going to happen considering inflation of ticket sales pricing keeps rising?
JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 6/21/2025, 8:34 AM
@dragon316 - it happens every year. One year some dude in High Point blew his hand off shooting a [frick]ing canon.
AllsGood
AllsGood - 6/21/2025, 8:37 AM
@lazlodaytona - Just from last year's July 2024 records?
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/21/2025, 12:32 PM
@AllsGood - I don't know. Was just asking in general.....
Arthorious
Arthorious - 6/21/2025, 3:47 PM
@dragon316 - when GA made them legal back in 2015, the number of ER visits rose tremendously
BisonScarBlood
BisonScarBlood - 6/22/2025, 1:47 AM
@dragon316 - Football player Jason Pierre-Paul had that happen.. But still won a super bowl.

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dragon316
dragon316 - 6/21/2025, 8:07 AM
Not excited for Elio see it at home
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/21/2025, 8:15 AM
I couldn't have been more disappointed with how 28 Years turned out ... and it's before that ridiculous ending.

The tone of the entire film was so far off from the first and second one it didn't even feel like it should have been part of the franchise. The infected weren't even kinda scary and the feeling of constant dread was just not there.

On top of that, there was almost no music from the original score, with the one moment having it was when Spike was cooking his fish and killing one of the infected as it charged him. The score was the best part of the original.

In the end, the film was so heavily leaning into setting up the next installments this one felt like a terrible footnote that just had zero good story in it.

Huge waste of money and time.
KingZero
KingZero - 6/21/2025, 8:29 AM
@lazlodaytona - I think the tonal difference was intentional, as they had been living with this situation for so long. The new world order has taken hold; now we see how different types of people adjust to it. I liked it, even the ending (obviously I laughed in disbelief, but it lines up with my humour to be fair). It could have ended with Spike about to fire his arrow, and the sequel could have picked up with that Edgar Wright moment instead.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 6/21/2025, 12:37 PM
@KingZero - I guess .... but then you gotta swallow the premise of it being 3 decades and no one that is living their normal live who aren't quarantined never figured out a cure and would cut off a group of people to simply fend for themselves.
I mean, we figured COVID out in a couple years; that is if you believe it was actually real thing and not a government conspiracy.
KingZero
KingZero - 6/21/2025, 6:06 PM
@lazlodaytona - it's an interesting point. I mean historically we used to have leper colonies, and I think that if any country was unsalvageable and presented a risk to the rest of the world it might be an action that would be taken. The rage virus was engineered, so maybe there isn't a cure. Although 28 weeks did suggest a potential vaccine. In the case of a cure though, and you mention COVID (which, real or not, was exploited by pharmaceutical companies and other private companies to extort public money- that's out in the open with UK politicians and their own private companies taking up massive contracts and delivering nothing), would it be financially viable- or more importantly beneficial- to give Britain the cure if they couldn't pay for it? And if it were eliminated, what's the value in a cure then? Perhaps these are questions that could be explored, although that would be a VERY different movie. Maybe an outside perspective is where the final instalment is headed.
KurtLazner
KurtLazner - 6/22/2025, 3:00 AM
28 Years Later was awesome and the people that disliked it JUST bc of the ending (that shouldn't even be THAT controversial to begin with) are the reason we're stuck with nothing but Disney schlock.

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