In what should be a celebratory weekend for The Predator camp, the arrival of Shane Black’s R-rated thriller has largely been overshadowed by the casting of Steven Wilder Striegel, a registered sex offender and a friend of the director’s. And that’s where the problem lies.
Just like he did on The Nice Guys and Iron Man 3, Black gave Striegel a role in The Predator, believing that he was helping out his buddy. It wasn’t long before the truth came out, though, prompting numerous apologies from Shane Black himself and leading Fox to remove Steven Wilder Striegel from the theatrical cut of the film. It’s also cast a shadow over the box office performance of The Predator, as the numbers are now in and it seems as if audiences are steering clear of this one.
As it was, analysts only estimated the pic making about $26 million, which is pretty low. And unfortunately, the sci-fi thriller didn’t even manage to hit that, pulling in only $24 million during its debut weekend. Overseas it fared a bit better, earning $30.7 million for a global haul of $54.7 million, but still, these are hardly the type of figures that would make the studio happy and you’d have to imagine those sequel plans may be in jeopardy now.
The Predator isn’t exactly what one would call a bad movie, but based on our own Matt Donato’s review, the franchise reinvention “guts and slashes its way to gory sci-fi mediocrity, and is further failed by abysmal pacing that loses characters, subplots and interest along the way.” So, it’s certainly a disappointment then, and while there is some fun to be had with the film, not to mention some great action and gore, it’s hardly the return to form that fans were hoping for.
Where The Predator will go from here remains to be seen, especially in the wake of the Disney/Fox merger. It’s unlikely that the property will just be shelved entirely, as there’s still much value in it, but you can bet that after the performance of Black’s latest effort, the Mouse House won’t be too eager to revisit it anytime soon.
