I won't even pretend to know what goes on behind closed doors of studio executives trying to predict a net profit for a given film project, but disc sales, cable release, streaming services must surely play a part in their equation.
Are film projects greenlit when they project it will only break even at the box office, but they hang their profit hopes on home sales? I doubt they care whether their revenue comes from a box office or over a video store counter. Seems plausible to me. Fox may have viewed The Predator project in the scenario above....but I'm only speculating, I have no source to suggest that's the case.