The horror genre's current renaissance is showing no signs of slowing down, to the joy of fans like me. Some of the best horror movies have returned to theaters with new sequels, such as the two recent 28 Years Later films. The latest of which was Nia DaCosta's The Bone Temple, which hasn't been performing at the box office. And this isn't the first time that moviegoers have failed the filmmaker, despite the quality of the projects themselves.
CinemaBlend's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple review was glowing, and indeed that was the sentiment from most critics. And while audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is also positive, unfortunately it hasn't been making money in theaters. This follows The Marvels bombing at the box office, and I have to wonder: why do folks keep sleeping on DaCosta's movies?
The Bone Temple And The Marvels Both Deserved Better At The Box Office
It's not like Nia DaCosta's movies always fail to make money. For instance, her Candyman crushed at the box office. But for some reason, both 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and The Marvels bombed. Although I think these were for very different reasons.
Personally I think The Bone Temple's box office performance came be blamed on a few different factors. To start, January is almost always a slow point in the film industry, so it's hard for any project to make real money. That, combined with how little promotional the movie had, put it in a bad position. Seriously, I don't recall seeing a single commercial on TV for the horror sequel. So even though the first 28 Years Later (which is streaming with a Netflix subscription) did well in theaters, DaCosta's sequel wasn't necessarily set up or success.
Then there's The Marvels. From the start, the Captain Marvel franchise was the subject of hate online, seemingly due to her being a female superhero. But the first movie did relatively well, and Nia DaCosta's sequel ended up becoming a bonafide crossover that connected to both WandaVision and Ms. Marvel. Unfortunately the sequel was the subject of more hate, and failed to make money at the box office. And that's a real bummer, as I thought it was a delightfully unique blockbuster, with a short runtime and awesome action sequences. Plus, I'm a sucker for any movie with a musical number.
Personally, I loved both The Marvels and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which is why I'm so bummed that moviegoing audiences have failed both titles. Nia DaCosta has proven herself as a visionary filmmaker across multiple genres, and I'd hate to see if these movies' poor performance negatively influences what type of projects she's offered in the future.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is in theaters now as part of the 2026 movie release list, and The Marvels is streaming over on Disney+. As for Nia DaCosta, she recently celebrated the release of her acclaimed drama Hedda, and is attached to two upcoming TV projects.
