Was the ‘28 Years Later’ Sequel Netflix’d?
Matt & Ben’s ‘The Rip’ reopens the debate over streaming as box office gravity
With more than 41.6 million global views since its release on Friday, it’s safe to call Netflix’s The Rip with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck the biggest new movie of the week — a fact that may have caused an issue for the top theatrical release, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which struggled.
“I’m sure everybody could not possibly avoid the PR for it. I know I was well reached by both of those men this week,” Sean McNulty says, before asking Richard Rushfield one of the era’s most unanswerable questions: Do star-studded streaming movies like The Rip (which had the biggest debut numbers for an original movie on Netflix since Happy Gilmore 2) siphon viewers away from the theatrical experience?
“I don’t know that The Rip specifically lowered the box office for this weekend. I do know that the constant message of movies is that you’ll get things for free at home, and the drumbeat of that has had an effect,” Richard says. “It’s undeniable that it has had an impact, and that the more you have real stars making what would have been real movies before, just reinforces that message one more time.”
A sequel to last summer’s 28 Years Later, Sony’s The Bone Temple had favorable reviews and strong exit-polling from CinemaScore. Yet despite the film’s creative success (Richard was a fan!), it failed to land with audiences, earning roughly $15 million over the four-day weekend, about half of what 28 Years Later grossed during its three-day debut in June.
“Sony could use a hit,” Sean says, noting that the studio has scuffled for the past 15 months with little hope on the horizon for a breakout hit until Spider-Man: Brand New Day in July. Not counting the Crunchyroll anime releases, Sony hasn’t had a release earn more than $150 million worldwide since 28 Years Later, and before that, Venom: The Last Dance in October 2024.
“They're getting some singles and doubles, but to not clear over $150 million globally in 15 months for a major Hollywood studio… they could use that Spider-Man money, I’ll leave it at that,” Sean says.
Elsewhere in the episode: Marty Supreme and The Housemaid continue to surprise, Avatar: Fire and Ash is no Zootopia 2 and Amazon MGM gets into the ’26 game this weekend with Mercy.