Prey’s Streaming Release Was A Mistake — New Predator Movie Deserves A Shot At The Box Office

The original “Predator” is viewed as one of cinema’s most treasured action classics. Nothing can truly take anything away from that legacy but to illustrate just how much people loved “Prey,” it now ranks as the best-reviewed movie in the history of the franchise by a considerable margin. We’re talking near-universal praise, which is extremely rare air for a genre film of any kind, let alone the fifth entry in a decades-old series. It also set records for streaming viewership at the time of its release thanks in no small part to the overwhelmingly positive buzz.

To cap it all off, the movie was nominated for six Emmys, winning one for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special. Heck, Disney even caved and gave the movie an impressive Blu-ray release after physical media collectors of the internet came together to beg for it to happen. Streaming success is often difficult to quantify but, by every metric we have to measure, this movie was a huge success. So, it’s hard to argue that the studio was disappointed with the results — we are getting a sequel after all. That said, it’s also not hard to imagine the bean counters looking over what this movie could have made at the box office in light of its success.

Predicting what “Prey” could have grossed in theaters is a fool’s errand but as someone who writes about such things regularly, I can say with confidence that this had the makings of a hit. What’s more, we’ve learned time and time again that movies released in theaters, even if they aren’t outright hits, do better on streaming. Period. Disney learned this with “Encanto,” for example. That being the case, whatever this movie made at the box office would have helped to offset costs and, in all likelihood, it would have then become a big hit on streaming anyhow. The only downside would have been helping out Max, a streaming competitor.