Predator: Badlands Roars at the Box Office, Setting Up the Franchise’s Biggest Comeback Yet
Predator: Badlands tore into theaters with $4.8 million from early Wednesday and Thursday previews, signaling a strong opening weekend and sharpening the odds of a sequel.
Quick one for the trophy wall: Predator: Badlands just posted a strong early haul, and if those first numbers hold through the weekend, we might actually be talking about another trip back to the hunt.
Box office: a promising start
- $4.8 million in previews, counting early Wednesday screenings plus the usual Thursday shows
- Projected domestic opening weekend: $25–30 million
- If that range sticks, it would be the biggest opening for a solo Predator movie. The overall franchise record is still Alien vs. Predator with $38 million back in August 2004.
So, is a sequel happening?
Nothing official yet. Predator: Badlands 2 has not been announced. Director Dan Trachtenberg has said he has ideas for a third Predator movie if Badlands delivers financially, and producer Ben Rosenblatt went a step further by dangling a very specific carrot: Arnold Schwarzenegger potentially returning as Dutch.
"Obviously, the holy grail of Predator movies would be getting Arnold back in there," Rosenblatt said. "And it’s always been something in the back of our minds that it would be really great to see him come back to this franchise that he’s made iconic and that’s made him iconic. So, he’s been really wonderful."
For what it’s worth, Dutch did pop up at the end of the animated Predator: Killer of Killers, so the door isn’t exactly locked.
What kind of Predator movie is this, anyway?
Trachtenberg flips the usual setup by making the Predator the protagonist. The story is set in the future on a remote planet where a young Predator outcast teams up with a human companion and goes hunting for the ultimate adversary. It’s a cleaner pitch than some of the convoluted franchise entries, and yes, the POV shift is a real swing.
Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi plays Dek, the Predator at the center of it all, and Elle Fanning is Thia, a Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic who is, yes, severed. If that detail made you pause, you’re not alone—but that’s the character.
Who made it
Predator: Badlands comes from director Dan Trachtenberg, working from a screenplay by Patrick Aison. The producing team includes Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt, John Davis, Marc Toberoff, and Brent O'Connor. It’s a 20th Century Studios release and it’s in theaters now.