Predator: Badlands Falls Prey to Rivals in Second Weekend at the Box Office
A week after a ferocious debut, Predator: Badlands takes a sharp second-weekend hit, ceding ground to rival releases as the industry scrutinizes its staying power.
After a punchy opening, Predator: Badlands just hit its second-week reality check. The headline: big drop, tougher competition, and a lot of eyes watching whether this thing has legs or not.
Second weekend snapshot
Per Box Office Mojo, Predator: Badlands fell almost 68 percent in weekend two, pulling in $13 million across Friday to Sunday and sliding to third place behind two new arrivals. Daily breakdown: $3.5 million on Friday, $5.6 million on Saturday, $3.9 million on Sunday. That puts the domestic total at $66.3 million by the end of its second frame.
The drop stings a bit more because the movie came out strong: it opened to $40,016,853 from 3,725 theaters and banked $53.2 million in its first week. Studio reporting has the worldwide gross at $136.3 million so far, including $70 million from international markets. The consensus over the weekend was that this second-frame tumble came in steeper than expected; some figured word of mouth might smooth the landing more than it did.
How the rest of the field shook out
The competition did what competition does. One magician caper and one retro bruiser both outpaced Badlands, and the holdovers filled in the gaps. Here is where the money landed:
- Now You See Me: Now You Don’t led the weekend with $21.3 million and has reached $75.5 million worldwide.
- The Running Man opened in second with $17 million (Friday $6.5M, Saturday $6.1M, Sunday $4.4M).
- Predator: Badlands took third with $13 million in weekend two (Friday $3.5M, Saturday $5.6M, Sunday $3.9M), for $66.3 million domestic to date.
- Regretting You made $4 million in weekend four, lifting its total to $44.9 million.
- Black Phone 2 added $2.65 million in weekend five, for $74.6 million cumulative.
- Keeper opened at $2.5 million.
- Chainsaw Man grabbed $1.6 million for a $41.2 million overall total.
The timing factor
Analysts flagged mid November as a prime stretch for brand-name releases, pointing to the second weekend of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the launch of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as recent proof. Translation: it is a crowded corridor, and the big IPs tend to flex.
Next up, the focus shifts to Universal’s Wicked: For Good. Early projections have it pacing well ahead of last year’s first chapter, which could reshuffle everything again.
Bottom line
Globally, Badlands is still very much in the game. Domestically, a near-68 percent slide after a strong start says the hold is wobbly, and the newcomers did their job. The third weekend will tell us whether this settles into a normal genre run or burns off fast.
(Numbers via Box Office Mojo and Deadline. Originally reported by Anubhav Chaudhry.)