An Unexpected Sci-Fi Movie Made A Fortune For Fox

Director Dan Trachtenberg's "Predator: Badlands" is winding down its run at the box office at the time of writing, but it's already the highest-grossing "Predator" film ever. After becoming the biggest "Predator" movie domestically pretty early on in its run, "Badlands" overtook 2004's "Alien vs. Predator" at the global box office, securing its place at the top of the food chain. But that's just in terms of theatrical grosses. As it turns out, "Alien vs. Predator" was really a far bigger hit for Fox back in the day than any of us may've realized.

A report from Deadline breaking down the record set by "Predator: Badlands" looked at both the good and bad for Disney from a dollars and cents perspective. The good? "Badlands" has made $180 million worldwide in theaters. The bad? It carries a $105 million production budget. That's where "Alien vs. Predator" comes in, as the outlet also noted that the crossover was a massive, massive success for Fox beyond its theatrical performance:

The only thing about "Badlands," and this is because it's sci-fi: it cost a lot, at $105M before P&A. Several sources have told us that "Alien vs. Predator," propped by the early-millennium DVD era and a $65M production cost, is one of 20th Century Fox's most profitable movies ever.

That is downright astounding. Remember, Fox also released James Cameron's "Avatar," the biggest movie of all time with $2.9 billion to its name, as well as all of the "X-Men" films, "Deadpool" movies, and plenty of other hits over the years. But the box office is only one part of the equation and, as this report suggests, "Alien vs. Predator" did gangbusters during the peak DVD era before Netflix and streaming took off. This begs the question: Just how much money did the movie make?

In terms of box office, director Paul W.S. Anderon's "Alien vs. Predator" was a decent hit, pulling in $177.4 million worldwide against a $65 million production budget. It received one slightly less successful sequel in the form of "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem."

When it comes to those alleged DVD sales, those are harder to pin down. But just as a snapshot, during its initial run on home media in early 2005, "Alien vs. Predator" sold around 1.85 million combined copies on DVD and VHS (per ComingSoon). Mind you, this was right before VHS went the way of the dinosaur in 2006. The sci-fi crossover was also the most rented movie during that period, generating some $8.6 million in revenue. And that was just the start.

Anderson's movie also eventually made its way to Blu-ray (though it's yet to receive a 4K Ultra HD release) and was a cable TV staple for years. It's also readily available to stream nowadays and has undoubtedly benefited from VOD rentals. Thus, it's easy to see how this movie could've generated a lot of cash for not just Fox but also Disney in the wake of the studio purchasing most of Fox's media assets in 2019.

So, how does this relate to "Badlands" and the "Predator" franchise's future? Well, what this all suggests is that both the "Alien" and "Predator" movies have very long lifespans beyond the box office. That's not always the case for every film, particularly in the streaming era. But if "Badlands" is a hit on VOD and streaming, it could pave the way for Trachtenberg to make his next "Predator" movie, despite the film's budget preventing it from becoming profitable in theaters alone.

"Predator: Badlands" is in theaters now.