Predator: Badlands is proving that sometimes a franchise just needs a new perspective to be a massive hit. Under the direction of Dan Trachtenberg, the most unique entry in the Predator franchise has also become its highest grossing film in just over a week in cinemas, and it isn’t done yet.
When Prey was released on Disney+ back in 2022, many Predator faces were outraged that the prequel movie was forced to languish on streaming while it could have been a hugely successful theatrical movie instead. While that is all in the past, Predator: Badlands is giving everyone a taster of what could have been if that film had been granted a cinema release by Disney.
Instead, fans have had to wait a few more years to get to see a Predator movie on the big screen, and it has clearly been worth the wait. Trachtenberg’s bold decision to turn the franchise’s villain into a hero, as well as dropping in several Easter eggs and connections to the Alien franchise to boot, has turned Badlands into the most successful film in the franchise, in terms of both its financial success and its reviews.
‘Predator: Badlands’ Has Surpassed Some Very High Expectations
Ahead of the release of Predator: Badlands, fans were intrigued at how Trachtenberg would be able to make audiences root for one of the monsters that they had come to know as the franchise’s villains for almost 40 years. As it turns out, very easily.
Predator: Badlands scored an incredible 85% score from critics and an almost perfect 95% from audiences. This, combined with a A- CinemaScore, made the film the best reviewed movie of the franchise, and now it has a box office result that pretty much gives Trachtenberg carte blanche to do whatever he wants next with the saga.
So far, Badlands has made over $135 million at the box office, including more than $60 million from domestic theaters, well over its $105 million budget and making it the highest grossing movie of the franchise after just 10 days on release. While the film still has some way to go to match Alien: Romulus’ massive $350 million haul, the strong word of mouth could be enough to entice more people into cinemas over the coming weeks.
Where the Predator franchise goes from here is not clear yet. Trachtenberg clearly has other ideas that he would like to pursue, and it is hard to imagine that he will not be given the chance to continue with his plans. With an Alien: Romulus sequel already in the works, and Alien: Earth getting a second season renewal, the real question many fans want to have answered is whether we will get another full-blown crossover of the two sci-fi franchises over a decade after the mixed results of the previous attempt. At this point, it is almost unthinkable to consider that it might not happen.
- Release Date
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November 5, 2025
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Producers
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Brent O’Connor, John Davis, Marc Toberoff, Dan Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt
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Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi
Dek / Father
