Horror at the Box Office: Badlands Reigns Supreme
Predator: Badlands hunted down the competition at the box office, rampaging to an impressive $40 million weekend. This is the highest grossing opening weekend (not adjusting for inflation) in the history of the Predator franchise.
The gamble of making this one PG-13 (most previous installments were rated R) appears to have paid off. Positive buzz from audiences and critics undoubtedly helped as well.
Badlands also catapulted to a strong start internationally, where it grossed an additional $40 million for an estimated $80 million worldwide total. The film cost $105 million to make. 20th Century Studios is hoping that the positive reception will lead to strong holdover grosses in the weeks ahead.
This is another success for director Dan Trachtenberg, who has launched a full fledged Predator revival. This is his third franchise installment and all three have been well received.
It’s somewhat debatable whether Badlands qualifies as horror, but if it does, then it joins Sinners, Companion, The Conjuring: Last Rites, and The Black Phone 2 as 2025 horror films that achieved at least one #1 box office weekend.
Speaking of The Black Phone 2, last weekend’s #1 movie slid only 36% in its fourth weekend, grossing $5.3 million. That pushes its domestic total past $70 million. It’s earned over $120 million worldwide on a budget of $30 million.
That’s it for genre films in the top ten. To find another horror movie, you have to look waaaay down at #24, where Shelby Oaks made $85,000, increasing its domestic total to approximately $4.4 million.
Up Next
The sci-fi horror remake The Running Man races into cinemas on Friday. It’s an adaption of a Stephen King story that was previously made into an ’80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. The Running Man‘s target audience overlaps with Predator, so it’ll be interesting to see how Badlands holds up in its second weekend.
Also, the new Osgood Perkins flick Keeper creeps its way into theaters as well. I haven’t really seen a ton of buzz about this movie, to be honest, but the trailer is eerie.
