‘Mortal Kombat II’ Has Flawless Box Office Opening Victory: Estimated $40M

Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema’s Mortal Kombat II opened in theaters this weekend and had itself a flawless victory. Apologies for the obvious puns, but hey, they were there. Had to use it.

People weren’t entirely sure what kind of audience would show up for the sequel, considering the first film was essentially dumped during the COVID era and critically panned. Box office-wise, the 2021 film opened to just $23.3 million domestically and ended its entire theatrical run with only $84.4 million worldwide, although it was also released day-and-date on HBO Max, which absolutely hurt its theatrical potential.

With Mortal Kombat II, things are starting much stronger. The sequel opened to an estimated $40 million domestically this weekend, bringing its worldwide total to $63 million.

It’s the beginning of summer. People are still in school, but the Mortal Kombat fan base spans generations, especially audiences who grew up with the games in the ‘90s. This new movie really leaned hard into gore, action, and violence, while prioritizing nostalgia over story, much like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which obviously became a massive box office hit.

It feels like we’re moving deeper into the nostalgia era, where studios are finally realizing audiences would rather get something faithful and fan-driven than some bizarre studio reinvention. If you look back at the old ‘80s and ‘90s video game adaptations like Street Fighter or the original Super Mario Bros., those movies weren’t just bad at the time; they’re not even fun to revisit now.

At this point, I’d almost rather take a nostalgia play than another “Hollywood knows better” interpretation of beloved franchises. That mentality really started to collapse with Sonic the Hedgehog and the original nightmare design that fans bullied the studio into completely redesigning. Some people were annoyed that fans had that much power, but honestly? In some cases, they’re right.