At long last, Predator fans can rejoice, as a great wrong is being righted: Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey is finally getting a theatrical release. And its about damn time.
As of this moment, despite the fact that he has made two of the greatest Predator films of all time in the form of Prey and this year’s animated Predator: Killer of Killers, Trachtenberg has yet to actually see any of his installments released on the big screen. All of that is set to change with this November’s Predator: Badlands, which is getting the full big-screen treatment and then some, with the largest budget a Predator film has ever had and full-blown IMAX distribution. Now it has been revealed that in tandem with this, AMC will be doing an exclusive double feature of Prey and Predator: Badlands for many its theaters on November 5, two days before the official release date for Badlands.
At least, that was when it was originally announced on the AMC site. However, the page for booking tickets has since gone down for maintenance. We'll have to keep an eye for its return in the coming days.
This is undeniably great news because of one simple fact: Prey absolutely rules. When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, the Predator franchise was not in a great place. Its prior release, Shane Black’s 2018 movie The Predator, was met with negative reviews, a divisive response from fans, and a box office total that didn’t compensate for its large budget. As such, Predator wasn’t exactly something that Disney deemed a priority.
However, the studio just so happened to inherit a previous pitch from filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg that they liked, about taking the core hook of Predator and transplanting it to a different time and place. The result was Prey, a unique blend of a back-to-basics approach and boundary-pushing new craft that delivered on every front. In fact, the only downside to Prey was that it could not be enjoyed on the big-screen; it was instead released solely on streaming, as a Hulu exclusive. In Disney’s perpetual quest to keep putting new exclusive content on its litany of streaming services, the Predator franchise’s uncertain financials had made Prey a clear candidate for such a streaming release. But when the movie came out and earned unprecedented audience engagement and the best reviews of the franchise, many were sad to be unable to see it in a theater.
Fortunately, with this freshly announced double-feature, fans will finally get to experience Prey on the big-screen just before they see Trachtenberg’s new film, Predator: Badlands. The special engagement will release on November 5th. Keep your on the AMC site for ticket availability.