Predator: Badlands Not So Bad - Week 1

It’s happening!!! The 2025 Holiday Blockbuster Pool is here and it actually started with a film that wasn’t DOA on arrival. Phew. 

Predator: Badlands opened with $40 million and the studio was quick to point out that this was the largest opening ever for a Predator movie. It’s also the largest opening ever for a Badlands movie. Where was the press release about that?

The reality is that despite numerous reboots and rebrands, the Predator brand hasn’t exactly been box-office gold since Arnie and Carl Weathers’ classic arm-wrestle high-five. Alien vs. Predator opened to $38 million in 2004, almost the same as Predator: Badlands, and you can bet movie tickets cost a heck of a lot less back then than today’s boujee prices. 

Still, $40 million is fine. Alien: Romulus opened around that last year and finished with $105 million total. This year, that might be a Top Five number. It’s better than last year’s Red One $32 million start and the competition is literally a ping-pong playing Timothée Chalamet movie. Time will tell. 

Amazingly, there’s another Schwarzenegger re-do, The Running Man, that’s coming out this week to try and knock Predator: Badlands off its perch. Where did all this Arnold nostalgia come from and why didn’t it lead to James Cameron making some new True Lies films? I’d rather see more of those films than more of The Sullys, airing 8pm Wednesdays on ABC this Spring… as long as you don’t have YouTubeTV. 

    

The Top Five If Today Was MLK Day:

#1. Predator: Badlands - $40 million 

#2. n/a

#3. n/a

#4. n/a

#5. n/a

 

*****

Extra Bonus Section

 

As per the Week 1 tradition here are my esteemed, extremely well thought-out and perpetually doomed to fail 2025 Holiday Blockbuster prognostications. Remember, I’m the guy who thought Strange World and Lightyear were going to save Disney. Genius!

So here’s what I really think will happen...

#1. Avatar: Fire & Ash - It’s sad that I feel like these films have become as meaningless to me as Transformers films, but not everything has to be about me. I still have Sisu 2 to look forward too! Instead, I think folks will flock to this because (I hope) they like it or because they feel like they have to to have a say about it. The last film made $575 million by MLK Weekend and I feel this will have a little less fanfare, so I went with $525 million for my guesstimate.       

#2. Wicked For Good - The last one made $475 million and I think this will be a little less green. Maybe not as many repeated viewings and sing-along editions.          

 

#3. Zootopia 2 - For me, this was the last of the “sure things.” The first one made about $350 million and even if this is less, it’s gotta be more than what #4 and #5 make.   

 

#4. The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants - Yup, this one even caught me by complete surprise. We just were never a SpongeBob family (no offense!), yet when I saw the box-office totals for 2015’s Sponge on the Run movie was $165 million, more than my jaw hit the floor. If there’s an audience for this film, they’ve got the whole holiday break to find it. 

#5. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 - The first made $137 million and I feel this will hit pretty much the same way. In Josh Hutcherson I trust. Team Peeta 4 Life! 

Good luck, everyone!