By almost every critical measure, the Nia DaCosta-directed “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple” was a success.
The title received glowing critical and audience reviews with a 92% critics and 88% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 81/100 critics & 7.1/10 audience score on Metacritic, better numbers than Danny Boyle’s predecessor six months earlier.
Yet on one key metric – box-office – the film has been seen as a bomb, taking in just $58 million worldwide from a $63 million budget – just one-third of the business of Boyle’s film.
Speaking with Empire, DaCosta says she remains very proud of the film and confused by its underperformance:
“It’s so funny, because literally every barometer we use in the industry to determine whether or not a movie is good, and people like it and want to see it, was through the roof, and yet our box office wasn’t there. I made a great film, and I’m really proud of it, and people liked it.
[It was] maybe too soon, because people were like, ‘Oh yeah, I saw that last summer!’ I’m like, ‘No, no, so there’s a sequel!’
My friend said to me years ago, ‘Nia, your career is for you to enjoy,’ and I really have been trying to put that into practice and take that to heart over the course of the past few years.
And so when this came out and it didn’t do as well in terms of the money it made, I was disappointed. But I also was like, ‘I’m so happy that when people find the film, they’re going to enjoy the film.’ I wish it made more money, but I’m really proud of it.”
As a result of both this and Boyle’s first film being seen as underwhelming, the fate of the proposed third film in the series is now in limbo.
