The trailer for 28 Years Later has officially left its mark, becoming one of the biggest of all time.
From racking up over 60 million views within the first 24 hours of its release, to dominating social media with fan speculation about the role of a “zombified” Cillian Murphy in the clip, buzz for the new movie has been immense.
Directed by British filmmaker Danny Boyle, the original film starring Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris, 28 Days Later, follows survivors of an incurable virus that ravages the world. It grossed $84.6m (£64.2m) from a budget of just $8m (£6.1m) in 2002.
The sequel takes place 28 years after the first outbreak of the Rage Virus and looks at how the survivors are coping in the infected post-apocalyptic landscape.
Having reached almost 150 million views, it has become the second most-watched horror trailer of all time, according to Deadline. It is just behind the trailer for horror It Chapter Two, which gained 96 million views within the first 24 hours of its release.
The fan response to the teaser led to Sony announcing that it would be re-releasing 28 Days Later for digital purchase and rental on 18 December. The film remained unavailable on streaming sites for years due to rights issues.
It was produced and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures, which is now owned by Disney. However, the rights to 28 Days Later are owned by Sony, who won a bidding war for 28 Years Later in February.
The film follows on from another sequel, 28 Weeks Later, which was released in 2007 and is available to stream on Disney’s Hulu platform.
Unlike the very first film in the series, which had a modest budget of just £8m, the new sequels have a reported budget of £75m each.
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The first trailer for the major new horror movie was unveiled earlier this week with some fans certain they’d spotted a zombified version of Murphy in the promo clip.
The new movie stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes and is written by Civil War and Ex Machina director Alex Garland.
It has also been confirmed that the actor playing “Emaciated Infected” in 28 Years Later is not the Oppenheimer star but a newcomer called Angus Neill, The Guardian reports.