For as impressive as Dan Trachtenberg’s (10 Cloverfield Lane) Prey, the origin story of the successful Predator franchise is, it’s a travesty that this movie did not receive a theatrical release. From Forbes.com about the movie’s release to Hulu/Disney+, over a theatrical run.
Since ‘Prey’ was a holdover before Disney bought Fox in 2019, the potential for post-theatrical streaming boosts was contractually limited. Had it been released in theaters, its post-theatrical afterlife would have begun not on Disney+ or Hulu but on HBO Max. However, if Disney wanted the film in theaters badly enough, they likely could have worked out a post-theatrical deal akin to ‘Death on the Nile,‘ which premiered at home after its theatrical run on both Hulu and HBO Max. It didn’t, so theatrical was never in the cards.