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\u201c28 Years Later: The Bone Temple\u201d<\/a> may have scored well with critics, but slightly more moviegoing audiences chose to spend the holiday weekend catching up with \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash.\u201d<\/a> James Cameron\u2019s epic topped the North American box office charts<\/a> for the fifth straight weekend with $13.3 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Walt Disney Co. also celebrated another win as their Thanksgiving release \u201cZootopia 2\u201d became the highest grossing animated Motion Picture Association release of all time. <\/p>\n Meanwhile \u201cThe Bone Temple,\u201d directed by Nia DaCosta, landed in second place with $13 million through Sunday. By the end of Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, it’s expected to be at $15 million, still trailing \u201cAvatar’s\u201d projected $17.2 million. The film, released by Sony Pictures and starring Ralph Fiennes and Jack O\u2019Connell, opened wide this weekend in 3,506 theaters on a wave of hype and strong reviews. It currently has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 72% of audiences said in a PostTrak poll that they would \u201cdefinitely recommend\u201d the movie. Considering it\u2019s also solidly in the horror genre and arriving in January, often a dumping ground for lesser movies, \u201cThe Bone Temple\u201d should have done better. Internationally, it made $16.2 million from 61 markets.<\/p>\n But perhaps in a case of too much too soon, the sequel also comes less than a year after the previous installment, \u201c28 Years Later,\u201d<\/a> which opened to $30 million in June. Going into the weekend, \u201cThe Bone Temple\u201d was expected to make at least $20 million through Monday. With a reported $63 million production budget, not including marketing and promotion, it also has a long journey to break even.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those head-scratchers,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore. \u201cThere may be a little bit of confusion from audiences. But word-of-mouth might sustain it in this marketplace, like we saw with \u2018The Housemaid\u2019 and \u2018Zootopia 2.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, the team who started it all with \u201c28 Days Later,\u201d which came out in 2002, are also working on a third installment. <\/p>\n Third place went to \u201cZootopia 2,\u201d with $8.8 million in its eighth weekend. With global grosses currently at $1.7 billion, it surpassed \u201cInside Out 2\u201d as the highest grossing MPA animated release of all time. The MPA distinction means that the Chinese blockbuster \u201cNe Zha 2,\u201d which has made over $2.2 billion, is not included in the rankings. \u201cZootopia 2\u201d is also now the ninth biggest global release of all time<\/p>\n \u201cThe Housemaid,\u201d one of the other major blockbusters of late, landed in fourth place with $8.5 million. Made for only $35 million, the Lionsgate release has grossed nearly $250 million worldwide.<\/p>\n