Final numbers are in: Predator: Badlands made $184.2 million against a $105 million budget!

Predator: Badlands is being shoe-horned into the conversation as some kind of hit, but the numbers tell a very different story. The film had a huge reported production budget of about $105 million and opened with a respectable franchise-record ~$40 million domestically and ~$80 million worldwide in its first weekend thanks to that broad PG-13 rating and the Alien crossover hype — yet as it ends it’s theatrical run it only grossed around ~$184 million worldwide total against that $105 million cost, which doesn’t come close to the ~2.5× multiple studios usually need to actually turn a profit in theaters after marketing costs and exhibitor splits are factored inNow contrast that with what Alien: Romulus made for an estimated ~$80 million budget and pulling in over ~$350 million globally, proving that audiences will show up in massive numbers stand alone Alien film.  So while Romulus, with its tighter budget and R-rated edge, leveraged quality and lore into serious box office muscle, Badlands leaned hard into crossover bait and PG-13 outreach and still couldn’t even sniff comparable returns. It’s a joke to call Badlands a success. Alien: Romulus ran circles around it with a smaller budget, bigger haul, and proof that even a Predator/Alien Universe mash-up couldn’t save this flick from underperforming.

@hiveMUTHUR dude… exactly! been saying this exact thing for a long time… marketing hype around Badlands trying so hard to say it’s some major franchise success when it isn’t even a standalone Predator universe film. whether you like it or not it’s still a flop. thems just the facts.