What is the budget of Predator?

"Predator," a science fiction released in 1987, was directed by John McTiernan and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers. The production budget was $15,000,000, placing it in the low-budget range for science fiction productions of the 1980s.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for a science fiction production like this include:

Visual Effects & CGI Pipeline: Sci-fi films are among the most VFX-intensive productions in Hollywood.
Production Design & World-Building: Creating a believable sci-fi world required significant investment in set construction, prop fabrication, and conceptual design , from physical environments through LED volume stages and virtual production technology.
Technology & Camera Systems: Cutting-edge camera rigs, motion capture stages, LED volume stages (virtual production), and proprietary rendering technology often push the technical budget far beyond conventional filming costs.
Development: Jim and John Thomas's script for Predator was initially titled Hunter.

What were the major cost factors in Predator?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Predator."

Visual Effects: Visual Effects & CGI Pipeline is one of the primary cost drivers in science fiction productions of this scale.
Production Design: Production Design & World-Building is one of the primary cost drivers in science fiction productions of this scale.
Technology: Technology & Camera Systems is one of the primary cost drivers in science fiction productions of this scale.

How Does Predator's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $15,000,000, Predator sits in the low-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

A Dangerous Method (2011): Budget $15,000,000, Worldwide Gross $27,462,041
Ben-Hur (1959): Budget $15,000,000, Worldwide Gross $164,000,000
Land of the Dead (2005): Budget $15,000,000, Worldwide Gross $47,074,133
Into the Wild (2007): Budget $15,000,000, Worldwide Gross $56,255,142
King's Ransom (2005): Budget $15,000,000, Worldwide Gross $4,139,856

The median budget for wide-release science fiction films in the era ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

Predator Box Office Performance

"Predator" earned $59,735,548 domestically and $98,267,558 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $15,000,000, the film performed strongly at the box office.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Predator," that break-even threshold was roughly $30,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $98,267,558, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

Production Budget: $15,000,000
Worldwide Gross: $98,267,558
Net Return: $83,267,558
ROI: approximately 555.1%

At 555.1%, "Predator" earned roughly $6.55 for every $1 invested in production.

Predator Production History

Jim and John Thomas's script for Predator was initially titled Hunter. The original concept, centered on a plot of "what it is to be hunted", concerned a band of alien hunters of several species seeking various targets. That concept was eventually streamlined to one extraterrestrial hunting the most dangerous species, humans, and the "most dangerous man", a combat soldier.

Silver and Gordon first approached Arnold Schwarzenegger with the lead role. Schwarzenegger said: He had previously starred in Commando, on which Silver had served as producer. To play the elite band of soldiers, both Silver and Gordon, with co-producer John Davis, searched for other larger-than-life men of action.

Commitments by Schwarzenegger delayed the start of filming by several months. The delay gave Silver enough time to secure a minor rewrite from screenwriter David Peoples. Principal photography eventually began in the jungles of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, during the last week of March 1986, but most of the movie was shot near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Awards and Recognition

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 3 wins & 6 nominations total

Critical Reception

From contemporary reviews, Janet Maslin of The New York Times described the film as "grisly and dull, with few surprises". Dean Lamanna wrote in Cinefantastique that "the militarized monster movie tires under its own derivative weight". Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times proclaimed it "arguably one of the emptiest, feeblest, most derivative scripts ever made as a major studio movie".