We're currently witnessing a resurrection of the Predator and Aliens franchises. After 2017's Alien: Covenant and 2018's The Predator, it seemed liked these franchises were dead in the water; however, with the well-received straight-to-Hulu Prey in 2022 (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), 2025's animated Predator: Killer of Killers (96% on Rotten Tomatoes), and the upcoming release of the Alien: Earth TV series and Predator: Badlands film, it seems like we might be back in peak Predator and Aliens fandom.
Is this renaissance translating into increased demand in the collectibles market?
The most common grade of Predator #1 has nearly doubled in value during the past year.
Let's take a closer look at the sales history for a CGC 9.6 copy of Dark Horse's Predator #1, the most common grade on the CGC Census with 1,004 universal blue label copies. Just prior to the pandemic, you could've had a 9.6 for around $50 to $60. Like many comic books, it experienced a huge spike during the "comic boom" reaching an all-time high of $275 in April 2021, and then sharply correcting to the $110 to $125 range by summer 2024. Even though it lost more than half of its value since 2021, this three-year low is still twice what a 9.6 would cost cost pre-pandemic.
More importantly, during the past year, we've started to see the value of a 9.6 climb even as the rest of the comic book market continues to decline, including other major key issues from the Copper Age. Specifically, the 30-day average of $209 is substantially higher than the 90-day average of $183 or the one-year average of $161.
This 9.6 sold for $245 in early June -- that sale is a stone's throw away from the all-time high for a 9.6 of $275 set back in 2021:
In other words, a Predator #1 9.6 is swimming upstream which strongly suggests a revitalized interest in the franchise among collectors.
Aliens #1 has rebounded since a four-year low in December 2024.
We're also observing stronger demand for Aliens #1, the first appearance of the xenomorphs in comics. If you examine the sales history for a CGC 9.6, the most common grade on the CGC Census with 345 universal blue label copies, you can see that a 9.6 was worth approximately $100. It spiked to an all-time high of $670 in mid-2021, and then corrected to a four-year low of $217 in late 2024.
In spite of this correction, this four-year low is still more than twice what it was worth pre-pandemic. And since this low, its value has rebounded over the past eight months. According to GoCollect, its FMV is now $350. This 9.8 sold for an impressive $424 in May:
With both of these franchises firing on all cylinders, It also seems like it's only a matter of time before we get a new Aliens vs. Predator crossover film. We know they exist in a shared universe in canon because Elle Fanning's character in Predator: Badlands is actually a Weyland-Yutani synthetic -- the same multinational company that has sought to acquire and exploit the xenomorphs.
