Box office news: ‘Predator: Badlands’ storms to franchise-best opening

Director Dan Trachtenberg's hot streak with the Predator franchise has continued with a successful box office opening for Predator: Badlands.

Trachtenberg has enjoyed contorting this franchise in new shapes and sizes. 

Film News Blitz’s Dan Lawrence writes about how this has helped garner a franchise-best opening at the box office. 

An $80 million start for ‘Predator: Badlands’

After releasing in cinemas on November 7, Predator: Badlands achieved $40 million at the North American box office, adding a further $40 million across international territories. 

That saw it dominate the UK and Ireland box office over the weekend as well. 

It also means (per Variety) the film, a ninth instalment in a 40-year-old franchise, has set the new high watermark for a Predator global and U.S. domestic opening, not adjusted for inflation. 

The success is all the more sweet as this is the first franchise entry to land in cinemas since 2018’s The Predator, directed by Shane Black. 

Quality breeding success

So why has Predator: Badlands got off to a successful start, one that means it has already made significant headway into its reported $105 million budget?

Variety cites several reasons, each of them credible.

Shifting from R-rated to a PG-13 (15 to 12A in UK parlance) has helped broaden Predator: Badlands to a wider audience. 

Moreover, Predator: Badlands has performed well in IMAX and other special formats, while benefiting from strong word-of-mouth due to good reviews. 

At the time of writing, Predator: Badlands enjoys an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes with critics, and even better 95% with audiences.

All this is great news after a dismal October at the box office and shows that Trachtenberg knows just how to make a success out of Predator.

A Trachtenberg hat-trick

Trachtenberg is almost single-handedly responsible for turning the fortunes of the Predator franchise around. 

That began with Prey in 2022, which featured a female hero, Naru, a warrior of the Comanche Nation, in a confrontation with the franchise’s main antagonist.

This raw reinvention of the franchise norms was an Emmy-winning hit.

Earlier this year, Trachtenberg followed up Prey with the animated anthology film Predator: Killer of Killers, co-directed with Joshua Wassung.

Killer of Killers is a stunning depiction of several Predators clashing with humans across different time periods and is one of the year's surprise hits.

Featuring scenes from the Predator home world, Killer of Killers sets the stage for Badlands, which, for the first time, puts the iconic extra-terrestrial centre stage as the hero.

Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) is a young Predator (aka Yautja) outcast sent to slay an unassailable foe, with the help of a Weyland-Yutani (the famous corp from the Alien franchise) android called Thia.

According to Trachtenberg, Badlands isn’t where his journey with the franchise ends, and there have been talks of a direct sequel to Prey for some time.

"I have ideas, for sure, and the thing that's exciting is, to me, the unexpected,” the director told Yahoo.

"Hopefully, where we continue to go is not just the next part of the story, but also a story worth telling not just narratively, but aesthetically, or whatever it is, like it's a great meal of a movie. 

“It's not just a cool Predator movie, it's a cool movie movie. That's what I hope for in everything that we do.

"Prey 2 could be one of those things. Prey 2 could be a special, unexpected thing!"

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