PREDATOR: BADLANDS Passes 28 YEARS LATER At The Box Office

Predator Badlands keeps moving with a steady stride in the box office, and the energy around it feels stubborn in a good way.

via: Fangoria

Even though pretty much everyone’s attention was on Wicked: For Good and its blockbuster $226 million global opening, which included a whopping $150 million in North America, there were other movies to watch in theaters over the weekend. One such movie is director Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands, which has been met with much acclaim up to this point. That acclaim has helped push it past the $150 million mark, meaning it has surpassed one of the biggest horror movies of the summer. 

Badlands added another $6.2 million domestically on its third weekend, good enough for third place behind Now You See Me: Now You Don’t ($9.1 million). Internationally, the latest entry in the Predator franchise took in an additional $7.2 million. That brings its new running total to $159.5 million worldwide, surpassing director Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later, which took in just over $150 million over the summer. $151.3 million to be more exact.

One key difference is that Badlands is rated PG-13 while 28 Years Later was a pretty hard R. Another difference is what these movies cost to make, as Disney spent a sizable $105 million to produce Trachtenberg’s follow-up to Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers. Sony, meanwhile, spent $60 million on Boyle’s long-awaited zombie sequel. It’s all relative.

The film centers on a young Yautja named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) who is cast out from his clan. He finds himself on a dangerous planet seeking redemption. With the help of a damaged android named Thia (Elle Fanning), they embark on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary.

Looking at the bigger picture, Badlands still has a long way to go before reaching outright profitability in theaters. It would probably need to land somewhere between $250 and $300 million worldwide to be considered an unqualified hit. That seems a little unlikely at this point but it’s going to do well enough to make money in the long run, once VOD, streaming, Blu-ray, merchandise and other revenue is factored in. Disney can probably look at it as an investment in a franchise they very much want to keep alive, especially in light of how well it's been recieved.

Trachtenberg has teased that he has more ideas to explore in this universe. Meanwhile, there is increasing connective tissue with the Alien universe, with an Alien: Romulus sequel also in the works. It seems increasingly likely that Disney is building towards a crossover. Time will tell. 

Predator: Badlands is in theaters now. For more, get the lowdown on the shared Alien and Predator universe that is currently forming.