Gotta remember, this is riding on the high of
Prey, which (outside of the bubble of forums/dedicated fandom groups like these, where there tends to be more nitpicking about the film) was a pretty massive mainstream success that really took root with its audience.
I can see
Badlands doing something like
Romulus' numbers if the word of mouth is strong enough. It'll have a big opening for sure.
And the allusions to a certain overarching universe that it exists in might help some, too.
