We haven’t had a Predator film around these parts since the first sequel opened over Thanksgiving weekend in 1990, up against Three Men and a Little Lady. I even remember going opening day, only to find it sold out, sending me and a friend into a little film that opened the week before called Home Alone. Despite all the sequels, mashups, and reboots over the years, it wasn’t one of the original co-stars (Shane Black, who directed 2018’s The Predator) who got fans excited about this franchise again but the director of 10 Cloverfield Lane. And he may be taking it to its highest heights yet.
KING of the Crop: Predator: Badlands Secures Franchise-Best Opening
It is remarkable that the Predator franchise has lasted as long as it has despite not one of its incarnations becoming a $100 million grosser. Granted, the original with Arnold Schwarzenegger was the 10th-highest grossing film of 1987 with $59.7 million (roughly $170+ million with inflation), but the numbers mostly get lower from there. The 1990 sequel, Predator 2, barely made half that at $30.6 million. Predators with Adrien Brody made $52 million, and Shane Black’s 2018 $88 million production of The Predator bombed out with just $51 million domestic. But only the latter and the 1990 sequel would be considered losers financially at the time. Both Alien vs. Predator films, with their $40 million budgets, turned out to be successful, with the first in 2004 being the highest domestic grosser at $80.2 million. None have quite matched the financial success of the original, though.
Dan Trachtenberg certainly revived interest in this universe with the widely praised 2022 entry Prey, which ended up only streaming on Hulu in 2022. This weekend, fans finally got their wish to give Trachtenberg a chance to make a new live-action entry for the big screen, and they spent a franchise-best $40 million on Predator: Badlands, beating the AvP opening of $38.2 million as well as Predators ($24.7 million) and The Predator ($24.6 million). The concern now is that the fans continue to bite or bring some new eyeballs into the fold, since those last two films (along with the first AvP) finished their run with opening-to-close multiples between 2.07-2.10. Schwarzenegger’s other 1987 effort, The Running Man, goes up against it next week (after being delayed originally from this weekend), so there is always the potential for a quick falloff.
Its Certified Fresh Tomatometer score of 85% is the second highest of the live-action Predator films (Trachtenberg’s animated Predator: Killer of Killers anthology — available to stream on Hulu — is at 95%) behind Prey, while the Schwarzenegger original currently ranks fifth at 64%. Wait, what? Anyway, the $105 million production has made $80 million globally so far and is going to have to be the first Predator film to make over $200 million to make this a theatrical success. Disney, meanwhile, has crossed the $4 billion mark at the worldwide box office for the fourth year in a row, and they still have both Zootopia 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash to come, which could easily add another $2 billion plus to that total.
Tales of the top 10: Regretting You Holds on to No. 2, Black Phone 2 drops to Third
Last weekend was a whirlwind regarding who ultimately came out on top of the box office. It looked like it was Black Phone 2’s to lose, but then Regretting You appeared to win by a nose, only for the final numbers to swap them back on Monday. This weekend, though, there was no doubt, as the Colleen Hoover adaptation fell a mere 9% to gross $7.1 million. That brings its total to $38.6 million, officially outgrossing the Harrison Ford/Kristin Scott-Thomas “our-philandering-spouses-are-dead-so-lets-hook-up” film Random Hearts from 1999. These numbers are not far behind Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, which was up to $39.1 million after a $7.5 million third weekend. Regretting You is on a path to get over $50 million domestic now, which could be enough to make this a profitable hit for Paramount. Globally the $30 million production is over $62 million.
Down to third place for the first time in four weeks is Scott Derrickson’s Black Phone 2. The film made $5.3 million, bringing its 24-day total to $70.1 million. Another week and it will be the No. 1 film released in October this year and the fourth-highest grossing release in the month since 2023 after Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Venom: The Last Dance, and Five Nights at Freddy’s. This is Blumhouse’s biggest release since FNaF (with a sequel on the way next month) and is on a path for $80-85 million, not far below the original’s $90.1 million. Globally the film is over $120 million. This is the first October since the pandemic year of 2020 that the month hasn’t had a $100 million grosser. 2017 was the last time before then. It is just the fourth time since 2009.
Amazon/MGM put the faith-based Sarah’s Oil in 2,410 theaters this weekend and was rewarded with a $4.4 million opening. That’s better than the recent spate of Angel Studios openings — The Senior ($2.62 million), Truth &Treason ($2.62 million), and Sketch ($2.43 million) — from August to October. Angel’s The Last Rodeo opened to $5.42 million in May, and their animated The King of Kings began with $19.3 million over Easter. They clearly didn’t get the word out or let a lot of critics see the film, as it has only garnered nine reviews to date, seven of which are positive.
Earlier this year, Sony Classics had their biggest opening weekend ever with Becoming Led Zeppelin. The documentary, which opened in just 369 theaters, grossed $2.57 million and went on to make over $10 million. That is far from their highest grosser ever, but the opening was clearly notable. In March, they opened The Penguin Lessons in 1,017 theaters, and it made $1.18 million for its second-best opening ever. Then in July, the Sundance pickup Oh, Hi! started in 866 theaters with $1.15 million. You guessed it — their third-best opening. Now guess what happened this weekend. In their biggest opening weekend launch ever in 1,802 theaters (The Bronze was their previous in 1,167 theaters), James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg with Rami Malek and Russell Crowe began with $4.1 million. Bravo to these indie studios getting their films out there for a wider audience to discover. Speaking of which…
You have to hand it to Mubi for their fearlessness, at least when they believe they have a contender with a big star on their hands. Last year, they opened The Substance in 1,949 theaters, which opened to $3.2 million, grossed $17.2 million, earned a bunch of Oscar nominations, and got Demi Moore closer to winning one than ever in her career. This weekend, they have Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, which is aiming for Jennifer Lawrence’s fifth nomination. It opened in 1,983 theaters and made $2.8 million. Some have compared the film in tone and hysteria to Lawrence’s work in Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, which got the rare F rating from those polled by Cinemascore. Audiences made a similar comparison by scoring Die My Love a D+, the worst grade of 2025. Critics have been more favorable; the film is Certified Fresh at 77%, higher than Ramsay’s lauded We Need to Talk About Kevin with Tilda Swinton, which remains her lowest Tomatometer score to date — 74% — and that’s still higher than many filmmakers’ best score.
Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc added $3.6 million to its now 17-day take of $38 million. While a lack of competition certainly helps, the anime crowd has done well in keeping these films relevant past their leading opening weekends. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie – Infinity Castle is still the leading domestic animated release of the year ($133.1 million) and is the fifth-highest grossing film globally with over $670 million. Chainsaw Man may only be at $158 million worldwide, but it has passed Pixar’s Elio with its measly $154.2 million.
The budgets on Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and Bugonia may only be a quarter of most major blockbusters, but they are also two or three times more expensive than many independent productions. Both films cost a reported $55 million. Each. Scott Cooper’s Springsteen film made just $2.2 million in its third weekend and has grossed only $20.4 million to date. Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia has also been suggested to sport a $55 million price tag. The film did drop just 30% this weekend and made $3.5 million, but it has made just $12.3 million even with its expansion last week and $23.2 million globally. Neither of their disappointing numbers compare to Disney’s Tron: Ares, though. It grossed just $1.8 million to bring its total to $71.2 million.
Beyond the top ten: Christy and Sentimental Value Make Their Debuts
Black Bear Pictures has been around since 2011, producing films like All Is Lost, The Imitation Game, Mudbound, Dumb Money, Sing Sing, and Train Dreams (which hit theaters in a very limited release this weekend before heading to Netflix on November 21), amongst others. This year marks their first attempt at distribution, and it arrives with Sydney Sweeney in the boxing biopic Christy. They certainly have focused on getting their star an Oscar nomination and quickly got the film into theaters after its premiere at TIFF in September. Going wide into 2,011 theaters, the film grossed $1.3 million.
This is certainly not the Rocky universe, though it is a slightly better opening than last year’s vastly overlooked female boxing true tale The Fire Inside, which Amazon/MGM opened to $1.9 million in 2,006 theaters at Christmas around the same time that Sweeney’s rom-com, Anyone But You, turned into a big word-of-mouth hit. The Fire Inside racked up a smattering of critic and Indie Spirit nominations but nothing come Oscar time, and it grossed just over $8 million. Sweeney’s only other test as a lead was the horror film Immaculate, which grossed $15.6 million and is Neon’s seventh-highest grossing film to date. This Christmas she stars in Paul Feig’s The Housemaid with Amanda Seyfried, who is also looking for Oscar recognition with The Testament of Ann Lee.
An actual Oscar player in Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value opened to $200,000 in four theaters. That makes for the third-best per-theater average of the year ($50,000) behind The Phoenician Scheme ($93,417) and Friendship ($75,317), both of which opened in six theaters. Last year’s best four-theater launches were Oscar winners The Brutalist ($266,791 opening) and A Real Pain ($57,214). Speaking of which, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is over $196 million worldwide; domestically it made $870,000 and is up to $69.3 million.
Universal’s re-release of Robert Zemeckis’ Back to the Future made another $950,000. It has grossed $7.3 million in 10 days. Last week’s animated opening of Stitch Head made $825,000 for a $3.8 million total.
On the Vine: A Running Man takes on the Four Hoursemen of Now You See Me
38 Years after Arnold Schwarzenegger took on the role of Ben Richards, Glen Powell now steps into his shoes in Edgar Wright’s more faithful adaptation of Richard Bachmann’s (aka Stephen King) The Running Man. It is looking to take the top spot next weekend, while the thieving magicians return in Now You See Me: Now You Don’t in the third chapter of that series.
Full List of Box Office Results: November 7-9, 2025
- Predator: Badlands – $40.0 million ($40.0 million total)
- Regretting You – $7.1 million ($38.6 million total)
- Black Phone 2 – $5.3 million ($70.1 million total)
- Sarah’s Oil – $4.4 million ($4.4 million total)
- Nuremberg – $4.1 million ($4.1 million total)
- Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc – $3.6 million ($38.0 million total)
- Bugonia – $3.5 million ($12.3 million total)
- Die My Love – $2.8 million ($2.8 million total)
- Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere – $2.2 million ($20.4 million total)
- Tron: Ares – $1.8 million ($71.2 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
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