Predator: Badlands Box Office Exposes Disney’s Costly Misstep With Prey
Predator: Badlands rips into a $15.6 million Friday, proving the hunt is far from over — and making Disney’s Prey streaming-only call look like a costly misstep.
So much for franchise fatigue. Predator: Badlands just showed up to opening weekend and basically said: yeah, people still like watching space hunters throw down. And yes, that makes Disney sending Prey straight to streaming look even more questionable in hindsight.
Opening weekend says the hunt is far from over
Per Deadline, Badlands banked an estimated $15.6 million on Friday and is headed for about $37 million by Sunday. That is not the vibe of a tired brand. The kicker: 53% of the weekend gross is coming from premium formats like IMAX, which means audiences aren’t just going, they’re paying extra to see it big and loud.
What Badlands is doing differently
Instead of another humans-vs-Predator retread, the movie flips the angle and follows Dek, a Yautja outcast trying to prove himself. Making the franchise’s usual monster the lead turns the lore into the point, not just the backdrop. It’s still a large-scale sci-fi action piece, but it plays like a standalone you can walk into cold, while still tossing bones to longtime fans.
Online chatter is strong, with plenty of love for how it broadens Yautja culture and links back to both Prey and the original Predator. Also worth noting: they ditched some of the expected series tropes, and the PG-13 rating is actually helping. Younger viewers can show up, and the core crowd doesn’t seem bothered by the toned-down gore when the worldbuilding and momentum are working.
- Title: Predator: Badlands
- Director: Dan Trachtenberg
- Main cast: Elle Fanning, Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Mike Homik, Rohinal Narayan, Reuben De Jong, Cameron Brown
- Release date: November 7, 2025
- Runtime: 1h 47m
- IMDb rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 85% critics, 96% audience
- Opening: $15.6M Friday, tracking $37M weekend (via Deadline)
- Premium formats: 53% of the weekend gross from IMAX and other PLF screens
- Rating: PG-13
About that Prey decision
Badlands is packing theaters right now, which makes Disney’s choice to park Prey on streaming only feel like a missed alley-oop. Prey earned critical love and reportedly big viewership at home, but a theatrical run would have juiced visibility, kept momentum in the public square, and probably built a larger runway for Badlands. Imagine that final act of Prey on a giant screen as a palate primer for Dek’s story. We didn’t get that communal, big-screen jolt.
Where this is heading
Badlands also tees up more questions than it answers, including how all of this threads into Predators: Killer of Killers. If the box office holds, it sure looks like the Yautja saga isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
Predator: Badlands is in theaters now. Prey is streaming on Hulu in the U.S.