Cillian Murphy has become a major member of Hollywood’s A-list lately, in no small part thanks to his leading role in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Best Picture-winner “Oppenheimer.” In truth, however, Murphy has been delivering on screen for decades now, working with some of cinema’s best directors along the way. What’s more, one of his early hits was his collaboration with Oscar-winner Danny Boyle on the much-beloved pandemic/zombie horror film “28 Days Later.” Unfortunately, more than 20 years later, the movie is all but impossible for most people to watch.

“28 Days Later” was released in 2002, with Fox Searchlight Pictures handling distribution while DNA Films and the U.K. Film Council provided the funding. It was a small movie that ended up finding a bigger audience than anyone expected. It’s also one of those movies that, because it was funded by various sources from different countries and distribution was handled by someone other than the financiers, the rights got tricky somewhere along the way. As of this writing, “28 Days Later” is not available to rent or purchase digitally, nor is it currently in print on DVD or Blu-ray. Much like Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice” cartoon series, it’s tough to find.

Currently, the best option is for anyone who has an old DVD copy to pop that in. Or, if not that, to head out to a local second-hand store to try and find one. Unfortunately, “28 Days Later” is rather expensive on Amazon, with Blu-ray copies going for well over $100. That is prohibitively expensive and an amount of money that most people simply aren’t willing to spend. Even serious physical media collectors only shell out that kind of money for big box sets, impressive collector’s editions, or the rarest of rare gems.

This is all only more frustrating given that the long-awaited “28 Years Later” is coming our way next year, with the trailer having recently dropped online. Rest assured, many viewers are going to want to revisit the franchise before it arrives next summer. Currently, though, that is difficult to do. For what it’s worth, “28 Days Later” was a big success in its day, taking in nearly $83 million worldwide against an $8 million budget. It was also met with widespread critical acclaim, finding an even larger audience in the years since its original release. In 2007, a sequel titled “28 Weeks Later” reached theaters. It wasn’t quite as big of a hit but performed well all the same.

In most cases, studios try to make damn sure hit movies are available to watch as they’re leaving money on the table if they aren’t. Indeed, it’s nothing short of a crime that one of the greatest zombie movies of all time is this difficult to watch in the modern age. The whole promise of the streaming era is that things would be accessible. Unfortunately, some movies get left behind, and “28 Days Later” just happens to be one of them. The situation isn’t — or at least wasn’t — much better for “28 Weeks Later.” It occasionally pops up on streaming and is currently available on VOD. For a long time, DVDs were still the best option there as well.

If nothing else, this situation only serves to highlight the importance of physical media in the streaming age. That makes it all the more disappointing that stores like Best Buy no longer sell Blu-rays or DVDs. In any event, as someone who currently owns “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later” on DVD, I feel fortunate. Streamers and studios can remove movies from a service at the drop of a hat. They can’t come into your house and take your physical discs.

The good news is that Sony Pictures, which is distributing “28 Years Later,” appears to be getting ready to release “28 Days Later” on digital. The studio currently have a form to submit so that viewers can be notified as to when the film will be available digitally, which you can find right here. Still, that doesn’t solve the problem right now. It’s also still baffling that such a beloved movie is now, or ever was, this difficult to watch.

“28 Years Later” is currently set to reach theaters on June 20, 2025. You can read the synopsis for the upcoming sequel below. 

It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One such group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well.