Updated: Exceeding expectations, 20th Century Studios/Disney’s Predator: Badlands slayed it this weekend with an $80M global opening. Of that, $40M is from the international box office, making for an even split with domestic. The film also pushed The Walt Disney Studios across the $4B worldwide mark for 2025 ($4.07B), the fourth consecutive year the studio has crossed that threshold.
The Dan Trachtenberg-directed latest Predator installment hunted down the strongest worldwide debut in the franchise’s nearly 40-year history, at current rates, surpassing 2018’s Predator ($73.5M).
Overseas, this is the 2nd biggest opening of the franchise, only behind Predator ($48.9M). When excluding China from that total, Badlands claims the No. 1 offshore start in the series.
This is the first theatrical Predator film released since Disney’s acquisition of Fox, and its performance is great news for the industry at large given the recent funk and challenging global landscape, as it jumpstarts the rolling business that’s expected throughout the rest of the year.
The $40M overseas bow is just slightly ahead of where we had it coming into the weekend. Badlands overperformed pretty much everywhere and had great momentum in markets like Korea where it held No. 1 from Wed-Sun. Strong word of mouth and critical reactions helped drive business.
Overall internationally, where the Trachtenberg, Ben Rosenblatt and John Davis production opened across all markets, the film had top starts everywhere; either No. 1 (including UK, Spain, Australia, China, Korea and Mexico) or No. 1 non-local (ie France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Brazil). In the UK, Netherlands, Korea, Taiwan, India, Brazil and several smaller markets it had the best launch ever for a Predator title. And in China, Predator: Badlands is the first studio movie to open at No. 1 since Jurassic World Rebirth way back in July.
In China, Maoyan consistently increased its final box office projection over the past few days, now landing at $14M. While Predator: Badlands has runway ahead in other markets, China finally gets Demon Slayer this coming Friday – that movie having already done about $13M in pre-sales there.
The Top 5 Predator: Badlands markets at launch are: China ($7.4M), UK ($3.2M), Mexico ($2.3M), France ($1.8M) and Japan ($1.7M).
In Imax, the Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi/Elle Fanning-starrer delivered a $10.8M global debut.
MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE
Regretting You (PAR): $5.7M intl weekend (57 markets); $32.4M intl cume/$71M global
Black Phone 2 (UNI): $4M intl weekend (78 markets); $50.3M intl cume/$120.4M global
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc (SNY/CR): $4.5M intl weekend (63 SPRI markets); $65M intl SNY cume/$158M global (including Japan)
Bugonia (UNI): $3.6M intl weekend (56 markets); $10.8M intl cume/$23.2M global
One Battle After Another (WB): $2.6M intl weekend (71 markets); $127.4M intl cume/$196.8M global
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie (UNI): $1.6M intl weekend (76 markets); $45.4M intl cume/$77.3M global
*The Choral (SNY): $1.2M intl weekend (UK only)
*Anemone (UNI): $128K intl weekend (2 markets); $128K intl cume
*Denotes New