Predator Badlands Budget

What Is the Budget of Predator: Badlands (2025)?

The production budget of Predator: Badlands was approximately $105,000,000, financed by 20th Century Studios under the Walt Disney Studios umbrella. The figure represents a meaningful step up from director Dan Trachtenberg's previous Yautja franchise picture Prey, which cost an estimated $65 million as a Hulu original, and reflects the producers' decision to commit the new entry to theatrical exhibition.

Director Dan Trachtenberg shot Predator: Badlands primarily in New Zealand with cinematographer Jeff Cutter. The production used the country's film production grant to offset roughly 20 percent of qualifying spend. Principal photography ran approximately 80 days across studio work in Auckland and exterior locations in the North Island.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

• Cast Compensation: Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek, the lead Yautja, Elle Fanning as the dual android characters Thia and Tessa, plus supporting performers including Christopher Heyerdahl, Tama Te Rangi, and Sarah Peirse.
• Visual Effects: A large roster of effects shots produced by Weta FX, Wylie Co., and Rising Sun Pictures, including the Yautja design, the planet's predatory wildlife, the android characters, and full digital environment work.
• Practical Effects and Creature Suits: Practical Yautja suits, prosthetic and animatronic creature work, and stunt rigging supervised on Auckland soundstages.
• Production Design: The Yautja clan world, the alien planet, the Weyland-Yutani survey wreckage, and the picture's practical sets and locations.
• Music and Score: Sarah Schachner's orchestral and electronic score, building on the Predator franchise's sonic identity.
• Marketing and Distribution: Disney's global marketing campaign for the November 7, 2025 wide theatrical release.

How Does Predator: Badlands's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

• Prey (2022): Budget $65,000,000 | Streaming-only release. Trachtenberg's previous Predator entry, released directly to Hulu without a theatrical run, at roughly 62 percent of the Badlands spend.
• The Predator (2018): Budget $88,000,000 | Worldwide $160,544,083. Shane Black's prior franchise entry, released theatrically by 20th Century Fox, at 84 percent of the Badlands budget.
• Alien: Romulus (2024): Budget $80,000,000 | Worldwide $350,920,453. Disney's preceding adjacent-franchise release with significant overperformance.
• Predators (2010): Budget $40,000,000 | Worldwide $127,233,108. A previous franchise reset from Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal at a fraction of the budget.

Predator: Badlands Box Office Performance

Predator: Badlands opened to $40,037,000 across its domestic debut weekend on November 7, 2025, finishing first at the box office. The opening was the largest of the Predator franchise to date in unadjusted dollars and well above pre-release tracking.

• Production Budget: $105,000,000.
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $80,000,000.
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $185,000,000.
• Worldwide Gross: $184,500,000.
• Net Return: approximately break-even on theatrical alone.
• ROI: approximately zero percent on total investment before ancillaries.

For every $1 invested, Disney recouped roughly $1.00 after the exhibitor split on the theatrical run, with the picture's eventual profitability driven by Hulu, Disney+, and home video performance in the months following release.

Domestic accounted for 42 percent of the worldwide total, an unusually high North American share that reflected the franchise's entrenched US fan base and a softer international rollout in some Asian and European markets. The picture's commercial profile was broadly seen as a successful reset for the franchise.

Predator: Badlands Production History

Predator: Badlands was greenlit by 20th Century Studios in 2023 following the strong critical reception and Hulu viewership for Prey. Dan Trachtenberg returned to direct and co-write with Patrick Aison, expanding the scope of the franchise to a story told from the Yautja perspective.

Principal photography began in March 2024 in New Zealand, with the production based at Kumeu Film Studios and Auckland Film Studios. Exterior work took place across the North Island, including the volcanic terrain of the central plateau and forest locations near Wellington. The production used the New Zealand Screen Production Grant to offset roughly 20 percent of qualifying spend.

Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi performed the lead Yautja role in a full creature suit on set, with additional facial capture used for select shots. Elle Fanning performed both android roles, with the digital twinning supervised by Weta FX. Principal photography wrapped in July 2024, with visual effects and post-production running through summer 2025.

Awards and Recognition

Predator: Badlands is too recent for many year-end awards consideration as of this writing. The picture was nominated by the Visual Effects Society for outstanding effects in a science fiction feature and received Saturn Award nominations for Best Science Fiction Film and Best Make-up. The picture has appeared on several mid-budget genre-film year-end lists.

Critical Reception

Predator: Badlands holds an 82 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 67. CinemaScore audiences gave the film a B+. Justin Chang of The New Yorker wrote that the picture "has the texture and pace of an unusually committed B-movie." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called it "a genuinely exciting franchise reset." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave it three and a half stars. David Ehrlich of IndieWire was more reserved, writing that "the picture has style but loses its grip in the third act." Critics broadly agreed that Trachtenberg had successfully extended the franchise after Prey, and Schuster-Koloamatangi's lead performance drew widespread praise.