Predator: Badlands Box Office Smashes OG Movie's Record Despite Unexpectedly Harsh Week 2 Drop

Predator: Badlands is slumping harder than expected during its second weekend, but it has still set a major record. The new movie is the ninth installment in the sci-fi film franchise and the seventh theatrical release. The Predator: Badlands release kicked off with a $40 million domestic debut that marked the best of the entire franchise.

Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Predator: Badlands is projected to close out its sophomore weekend with a 3-day total between $13 and $14 million at the domestic box office. This sees its week 2 drop hitting roughly 66% million, which is about par for the course for a sci-fi tentpole, but is considerably rougher than its anticipated 50% drop.

However, by the end of the weekend, it is expected to hit a cumulative domestic total of $67.3 million, which sees it surpassing the all-time domestic gross of the original 1987 Predator, which made $59.7 million in North America by the end of its run.

Now, the only Predator movie to have earned more than Badlands at the domestic box office is 2004’s AVP: Alien vs. Predator, which grossed $80.3 million. Because that movie is a crossover with the Alien franchise, Badlands is thus now the highest-grossing domestic release of the flagship franchise.

This 66% drop breaks Badlands‘ pattern of exceeding every previous installment, because it is considerably more drastic than the drops of Predator (-31.6%), Predator 2 (-52.8%), and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (-55.4%). Below, see a breakdown of the box office performance and week 2 drops of the entire Predator franchise:

While 2025’s Predator: Badlands is now set for the third-worst sophomore weekend drop of the franchise, its drop is still an improvement on AVP, which fell 67.6%. By maintaining its lead ahead of the crossover movie, it could still be on track to usurp it as the highest-grossing movie of the franchise, both domestically and worldwide by the end of its run.

However, in order to do so, Predator: Badlands will need to sustain enough word of mouth that it doesn’t fall behind. It remains to be seen if it can do that, because in the coming weekends it will be facing off against hotly anticipated tentpoles including Wicked: For Good (the sequel to 2024’s Oscar-winning smash) and Zootopia 2 (the follow-up to a billion-dollar Disney movie).

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