Divisive “28 Years Later” Hits The Box-Office

Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later” box-office is coming in along expected lines, but the reaction to the film is proving more of a mixed bag.

The horror feature snagged a strong $5 million in previews, leading many to speculate it would land somewhere well over its $25-30 million opening weekend projections from earlier this week.

However, those previews started at 1pm, not 7pm like most previews, and so that skewed the results. Now, Deadline reports that the title is set to pull in a $14 million opening day, which includes those Thursday preview amounts and all of Friday’s take.

As a result, overall estimates are tracking for a $28-30 million domestic opening weekend, which fits original projections.

One thing that might have a major impact though is the audience reaction which has been all over the shop. While the film sits at a 90% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s at 68% with audiences and falling. On Metacritic the film landed a 76/100 with critics but a 6.5/10 with users.

In both cases, audience reviews are divided – some giving it a 9 or 10, others 1 or 2, with a lot of them spread fairly evenly. Repeatedly brought up criticisms point to the overall editing of the film, tonal shifts throughout, and the jarring ending which has really rubbed some people the wrong way.

The film’s CinemaScore is a ‘B’, which is about in line with most horror though. Overall, the film will come in second behind the second weekend of the live-action “How to Train Your Dragon,” which is headed for a $35.2 million sophomore run – a drop of 58%.

Pixar’s “Elio” will be third with an opening at around $22-24 million, the lowest opening weekend for a Pixar film to date. “Lilo & Stitch” is targeting fourth with $10 million, while “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning” will be fifth with $6.6 million.

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