Nimrod Antal’s PREDATORS walked into the weekend squaring off against heavy hitters like Universal’s 3D animated flick DESPICABLE ME and the second weekends of ECLIPSE and M. Night Shyamalan’s THE LAST AIRBENDER. Having a substantially lower budget than those, as well as rocking an action-horror oriented hard R, it was to be a dogfight at the box office for this flick, as it looked to take down the family-friendly fiesta.
All told, it fared pretty well. PREDATORS ran off with approximately $25 million in its first three days of release. While that was only good for third place, consider these factors: it only cost a reported $40 million to produce (shooting mostly in Robert Rodriguez’s backyard will bring a budget down) and entered 2,669 theaters, giving it a splendid $9,479 per theater average. In contrast, DESPICABLE ME is showing in 3,476 theaters, and ECLIPSE is playing in a whopping 4,468. Making an additional $18 million overseas, PREDATORS did the franchise proud. However, its longevity is a big question – you can expect a drop-off of at least 50% next weekend. It remains to be seen if another PREDATOR flick is in the offing, or if Fox will completely focus on its ALIEN prequel…
ECLIPSE made $33.4 million in its second frame. After chomping up around $175 over the Independence Day weekend, its total stands at approximately $237 million domestic. Say what you want about those silly sonsofbitches, they know how to make cheddar.
PREDATORS hottie Alice Braga