In 2022, a big pivot was made with the Predator franchise. Following a pair of box office disappointments in Nimrod Antal’s Predators and Shane Black’s The Predator, the decision was made for Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey to be a streaming release… and it ended up being both a hit with critics and extremely popular. With this success accomplished, a gamble with Trachtenberg’s live-action follow-up, as Predator: Badlands was made with the big screen in mind… and now it looks like it’s going to be the biggest success in the history of the series.
The box office needed a big splash following the awful ticket sales numbers from the Halloween weekend seven days ago, and that’s exactly what it has gotten in the form of the new Predator entry. The sci-fi/action blockbuster arrived as the biggest new release from Hollywood on Friday, and audiences properly responded by easily making it the new number one movie domestically. Check out the full Top 10 below and join me after for analysis.
|
TITLE |
WEEKEND GROSS |
DOMESTIC GROSS |
LW |
THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1. Predator: Badlands* |
$40,000,000 |
$40,000,000 |
N/A |
3,725 |
|
2. Regretting You |
$7,125,000 |
$38,596,000 |
2 |
3,196 |
|
3. Black Phone 2 |
$5,300,000 |
$70,109,000 |
1 |
2,943 |
|
4. Sarah’s Oil* |
$4,458,000 |
$4,458,000 |
N/A |
2,410 |
|
5. Nuremberg* |
$4,000,000 |
$4,000,000 |
N/A |
1,802 |
|
6. Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc |
$3,600,000 |
$38,031,000 |
3 |
2,285 |
|
7. Bugonia |
$3,500,000 |
$12,310,000 |
4 |
2,043 |
|
8. Die, My Love* |
$2,830,924 |
$2,830,924 |
N/A |
1,983 |
|
9. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere |
$2,200,000 |
$20,396,290 |
7 |
2,200 |
|
10. Tron: Ares |
$1,800,000 |
$71,260,727 |
8 |
1,970 |
Predator: Badlands Has The Best Opening Weekend In The Franchise’s Near-40-Year History
Predator: Badlands actually a gamble in many ways. In addition to the deadly Yautja species making the return to the big screen, the film is the first to make one of the extraterrestrial warriors into a protagonist, and the feature is the first in the canon to sport a PG-13 rating (which comes thanks to the movie having plenty of violence but zero human characters). There were no guarantees that these swings would pay off, but opening weekend numbers and reactions say that it has.
Early last week, positive praise from critics put Predator: Badlands on a nice buzz wave (CinemaBlend’s Sarah El-Mahmoud gave it three-and-a-half stars in her review), and the end result has been substantial ticket sales. Earning $40 million – per The Numbers – doesn’t exactly make the adventure instantly one of the biggest hits of 2025 (it ranks as the seventeenth biggest domestic debut dating back to January), but it is a big deal when it comes to features with “Predator” in the title.
Prior to this weekend (admittedly not adjusting for inflation), the previous biggest domestic debut in the series was Paul W. S. Anderson’s Alien vs. Predator, which made $38.3 million when it debuted in theaters in the summer of 2004. Of course, one big thing that the two blockbusters share in common are close ties to the Alien franchise – with the new 2025 movie reaffirming the link between the canons by featuring androids made by the fictional Weyland-Yutani corporation. How much that link played into the new movie’s success isn’t totally clear.
In addition to getting love from critics, audiences are digging the adventure as well. Per CinemaScore surveys taking by opening weekend movie-goers, the new film earned an “A-” grade – which is actually the best grade that a Predator movie has ever gotten (John McTiernan’s Predator from 1987 and Stephen Hopkins’ Predator 2 from 1990 both got “B+” results). That’s huge, and it’s a sign that the blockbuster may see a solid weekend-to-weekend drop seven days from now thanks to positive word of mouth.
Going beyond the domestic market, Predator: Badlands has also earned $40 million overseas already – which is a big reason why the new film is getting set to be crowned as the biggest hit in the franchise. Earning $80 million in three days means that it has already outgrossed both Predator and Predator 2, and it will only need to make $50 million more to outgross Predators and The Brothers Strause’s Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (which respectively made $127.2 million and $128.9 million during their worldwide theatrical runs). The $172.5 million made by Alien vs. Predator is presently the series’ biggest success, but the days of that truth may soon be ending.
Predator: Badlands will need to have strong legs if it wants to have the ideal box office legacy that looks to be within grasp – though that won’t exactly be simple given the big screen competition that is on the way in the weeks ahead, including a trio of new wide releases coming on Friday. I can promise you that the film’s performance will be a subject discussed in my column next Sunday.
Regretting You Isn’t A It Ends With Us-Level Hit, But It Is Holding On At The Box Office
When looking at the box office numbers for Josh Boone’s Regretting You, it’s easy to compare it to Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us thanks to the fact that both movies are based on Colleen Hoover novels… but the comparison hasn’t exactly been favorable. While the latter ended up being one of the biggest box office stories of last year, the romantic drama starring Blake Lively making $349.7 million worldwide, the former hasn’t been able to perform nearly as well. That being said, it is holding on in the Top 3 as audiences check it out in the weeks following its debut.
Regretting You didn’t make much of a splash when it first hit theaters in late October thanks to competition from Tatsuya Yoshihara’s Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc, but the anime title quickly faded following its big opening weekend, and the Hoover adaptation has held on. The movie was in a virtual tie for first place with Scott Derrickson’s Black Phone 2 when early box office numbers came in last weekend (albeit it ultimately had to settle for the silver medal), and ticket sales only dropped a comparative nine percent since Friday.
The title made $7.1 million in the last three days, and its domestic total now stands at $38.6 million. Worldwide, the film has made $71 million.
How will the box office Top 10 change seven days from now? One expects that the appropriate adjective will be “drastically,” as the current releases will be squaring off with Edgar Wright’s The Running Man, Osgood Perkins’ Keeper and Ruben Fleischer’s Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. Be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday for my latest column examining how everything shakes out.