Mortal Kombat beats Demon Slayer at box office with $22.5 million debut

Marcin Gulik April 27, 2021

Mortal Kombat has been on the minds of everyone here at Mega Visions and around the world. This movie was highly anticipated; We haven’t seen our favorite Kombat characters on the big screen since 1997! On April 23rd, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinemas released the movie in theaters and HBO Max.

The movie received mixed reviews from critics, and mostly positive reviews from audience goers. It currently stands at 55% for critics and 87% for audience goers on Rotten Tomatoes. You can check out our thoughts on the film during tomorrow’s Twitch stream. In a number of recent reports, the movie studio hopes to crank out four more movies if it does well. Based on the latest box office numbers, they look to be in good shape.

According to a recent report from Yahoo! Entertainment, Mortal Kombat debuted in the #1 spot this past weekend. The R-rated video game film earned $22.5 million opening weekend, beating out Demon Slayer who earned $20 million. When you combine the two, these films pushed weekend gross totals to an estimated $56 million. They helped break a new total for the post-pandemic box office.

With these kinds of numbers, it’s entirely likely the movie will turn into a saga. The film did a decent job creating a foundation to expand the story into something bigger. In a recent interview Variety, director Simon McQuoid said “it’s up to the fans” if the series gets a sequel.

That being said, if the fans want another one, that’s not for us to decide; that’s for the fans to decide. Then, we need a couple of joiner pieces that we know can lead us somewhere because there’s a treasure trove of stuff that’s just sitting there.
Simon McQuoid

McQuoid further said the next one would be “a little more female”, teasing introductions of Kitana and Johnny Cage. We can only hope those characters get more screen time!

While I have you here, check out Gilbert Gottfried singing Techno Syndrome with Lame Genie. What are your thoughts on the movie? Share your thoughts in the comments below!