$160.5M Predator Movie Becomes Netflix Global Hit 6 Years Later

The Predator has become a global hit for Netflix six years after its release. Hitting theaters in 2018, the fourth installment in the popular Predator franchise was directed by Shane Black with a script co-written by Black and Fred Dekker. The Predator stars Olivia Munn, Boyd Holbrook, Sterling K. Brown, and Jacob Tremblay and tells the story of a team of ex-soldiers who set out to save Earth after a crew of Yautja aliens arrive. The film was made on an estimated budget of $88 million and earned a disappointing $160.5 million worldwide, in addition to earning mostly negative reviews.

New data from Netflix now reveals that The Predator ranks as the second most popular title on the service globally for the week of October 7 through October 13. The film racked up an impressive 23.3 million hours viewed and 12.9 million views in total. Though the Predator movie beats titles like Lonely Planet (2024) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024), it falls short of the global leader, The Menendez Brothers (2024), a documentary on the same subject as their hit crime drama series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. Check out the full top 10 chart below:

Why You Should Watch The Predator

The Shane Black Film Has Some Redeeming Qualities

The Predator currently has a lackluster critics’ score of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the audience score is even worse at 32%. These scores don’t mean, however, that the film is without some strengths. Black’s signature sense of dark humor and wit occasionally shine through, and there are some moments of genuine humor throughout (even though there are plenty of jokes that miss the mark). The action is a mixed bag overall, but there is some violence reminiscent of the 1987 original Predator movie, which isn’t surprising given that Black appeared in that film as Hawkins.

Some of the performances are also worth celebrating, especially Brown’s. Brown plays Traeger in the film and serves as an antagonistic figure for most of the runtime, but he gives the character a charisma and coolness that actually makes him a joy to watch. Holbrook, too, gets some standout moments as Quinn McKenna, and it’s interesting to see him taking on more of a heroic role when he’s probably best known to many viewers for his villainous roles, particularly in the James Mangold movies Logan (2017) and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).

How The Predator Compares To The Other Movies In The Franchise

The 2018 Movie Was Doomed By Its Budget

While the 2018 installment is the second lowest-rated installment in the flagship franchise, ahead of the original 1990 sequel, it is actually the highest-grossing of all five movies by more than $30 million. The biggest issue for the movie’s success was its huge budget. Because movies typically need to earn at least two and a half times their budget, its break-even point was likely somewhere around $220 million, which is why it was still considered a disappointment. Below, see how it compares, both critically and commercially, to the previous Predator movies, except the two crossovers with the Alien franchise:

The 2022 prequel Prey was released directly to streaming, so it can’t be weighed against the previous installment in terms of box office. However, the raw numbers show that, just like its streaming release, there was strong interest in The Predator when it first debuted, just not enough to justify it having the highest budget of the franchise to that point, more than doubling the price tag of the 2010 installment, which was previously the most costly. Because that movie grossed just over $100 million, it was perhaps unduly risky to make the Shane Black movie so expensive.

Our Take On The Predator’s Streaming Success

A Movie’s Legacy Can Evolve Over Time

After a series of disappointing installments, reviews for Prey (2022) were glowing, and that film has affirmed that there’s still life left in the franchise under director Dan Trachtenberg. The Predator, by contrast, may arguably be the worst film in the franchise and, for a time, it looked like it might be the last. Clearly, however, Netflix subscribers are enjoying revisiting this film or checking it out for the first time, and its newfound streaming success is a testament to how movie opinions and a movie’s legacy can evolve over time.

There are elements of The Predator worth celebrating, but the movie just doesn’t hang together as a cohesive whole, and at least some of this is seemingly due to meddling from the studio, at least according to Dekker. In any case, the film is clearly now finding its audience, and it remains an interesting take on the iconic action franchise.

Source: Netflix & Rotten Tomatoes

The Predator follows a group of ex-soldiers and a scientist who band together to battle a new evolution of lethal alien Predators. As these hunters descend upon Earth, the team must fight to prevent humanity’s extinction.

Director

Shane Black

Release Date

September 14, 2018

Studio(s)

TSG Entertainment , Davis Entertainment

Distributor(s)

20th Century Studios

Writers

Fred Dekker , Shane Black

Cast

Boyd Holbrook , Trevante Rhodes , Sterling K. Brown , Jacob Tremblay , Keegan-Michael Key , Olivia Munn , Thomas Jane , Alfie Allen , Augusto Aguilera , Jake Busey , Yvonne Strahovski , Brian A. Prince , Mike Dopud , Niall Matter , Javier Lacroix , Gabriel LaBelle , Nikolas Dukic , RJ Fetherstonhaugh , James S. Salisbury , Garry Chalk , Duncan Fraser , Emy Aneke

Character(s)

Quinn McKenna , Nebraska Williams , Traeger , Rory McKenna , Coyle , Casey Brackett , Baxley , Lynch , Nettles , Keyes , Emily , Predator , Dupree , Sapir , Cantina Bartender , EJ , Derek , Agent Church , Helicopter Pilot , Postal Worker , VA Psych , Merc Soldier

Runtime

107 Minutes

Budget

$88 Million

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

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