Mortal Kombat was infamous in the early 90’s Arcades and at home with a SEGA Master System, and considered one of the greatest videogames of all time.
The movie, which was just released, is now is sitting atop the US Box Office once again.
The series originally had a film back in 1995 which while it was hated by critics, spent over 2 weeks at the top of the US box office and earned over $120m worldwide.
With an HBO Max streaming release alongside theatres in America, the Warner Bros. Pictures reboot of the film series is currently expected to finish the weekend with $20m.
This is despite the film being an ‘R-Rated’ production, along with another release over the past week, Demon Slayer: The Movie.
The Anime release, (again R-Rated) of which you may have seen our report on its tremendous record-breaking success in Japan, is also expected to finish on a $18m weekend.
Demon Slayer Took Japan By Storm
Credit: Ufotable
Read more: Mortal Kombat 2 Reportedly Already In The Works
Demon Slayer took over $350m in Japan and set IMAX records in gross and currently sits including this weekend at $397m worldwide.
The film currently sits at $9.5m opening for the weekend and took the lead on Friday, only to be overtaken by Mortal Kombat.
But Demon Slayer did set a Pandemic record, opening just behind Godzilla vs Kong’s opening numbers, which is a tremendous success all things considered.
Mortal Kombat was just behind in third place with just over $9m on Friday.
With consumer confidence growing into returning to Cinemas it’s a hugely positive step for the industry and shows there is an audience ready to watch films on the big screen.
Mortal Kombat’s being doing pretty well at the box office
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Read more: Ryan Reynolds To Play Johnny Cage In Mortal Kombat 2?
Demon Slayer’s performance so far, particularly should be noted as highly impressive for an Anime theatrical release in North America.
But we can expect it to drop off after the weekend substantially, as it seems very front-loaded in terms of ticket sales.
Mortal Kombat hasn’t exactly been well received by critics, nor does it enjoy the luxury of a large budget or stars, but as we saw in 1995, that doesn’t always matter.
And it may continue to show strength next weekend. Both movies are heavily ‘fan’ driven, and not really widely appealable outside their fan bases.
Fans will turn out expectedly the opening weekend and the general audience would potentially view it over the following weeks.
This is all good news for releases such as Spiral, the SAW franchise reboot starring Chris Rock and Samuel L Jackson coming up over the next month.
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