Badlands Tops Box Office with $80M Global Debut

Dan Trachtenberg’s latest Predator film, Badlands, stormed to the top of the box office on its opening weekend of November 7, 2025, earning a franchise-record $40 million domestically and $40 million internationally for a global total of $80 million. The science fiction action movie, released by 20th Century Studios under Disney, outperformed expectations that had projected around $60 million and marked the strongest debut for the 38-year-old series since its inception with the 1987 original starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The film’s success came amid a sluggish fall season for theaters, where October recorded its lowest grosses in nearly three decades and recent awards contenders like Die My Love and Christy opened to modest figures of $2.8 million and $1.3 million, respectively. Badlands, with a reported budget of $105 million, surpassed the previous high of $38.3 million set by 2004’s Alien vs. Predator. Audiences responded enthusiastically, awarding it an A CinemaScore and contributing to an 85 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In its third day alone, the movie collected an additional $3.5 million domestically, pushing its weekend total higher than competitors like...