Mortal Kombat II Opens With $5.2M in Previews

Mortal Kombat II is ready to fight. The Warner Bros. and New Line action sequel pulled in $5.2 million during Thursday night previews, setting up what could be a genuine box office battle this weekend against 20th Century Studios’ The Devil Wears Prada 2.

Projections have Mortal Kombat II opening somewhere between $40 million and $50 million — Warner Bros. is playing it conservative with an internal estimate of $35 million, but some forecasters believe it could push past $50 million on the strength of fan turnout and solid word-of-mouth. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is expected to pull $38 million to $42 million in its second weekend after a massive $77 million debut, buoyed by Mother’s Day audiences. Lionsgate’s Michael continues its blockbuster run in third place, projected for another $35 million to $40 million in its third weekend out.

For context: the 2021 Mortal Kombat reboot opened to $23 million — and that was with a simultaneous HBO Max release in the middle of the pandemic. This sequel carries an $80 million budget (up from $55 million), more characters, more fatalities, and a whole lot more ambition. The film was originally slated for an October release before Warner Bros. pushed it to May, betting it could perform like a summer tentpole. That call looks smart right now.

Adding to the momentum: Mortal Kombat II is also releasing in China without any edits or modifications — a first for the franchise. “Mortal Kombat II is releasing in China with no cuts,” star Ludi Lin told Variety. “This is why it’s trending internationally, rather than just focusing on domestic.” That could push the global opening weekend close to $80 million.

What Critics Are Saying

The film currently holds a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes from 93 reviews — the highest score in the franchise’s theatrical history and the first fresh rating any Mortal Kombat movie has earned. For comparison: the beloved 1995 original sits at 44%, the notorious Mortal Kombat: Annihilation bottoms out at 4%, and the 2021 reboot managed 55%.

The praise is concentrated in a few areas. Karl Urban, fresh off his scene-stealing run on The Boys, gets consistent credit for grounding the movie’s chaos as Johnny Cage — a washed-up movie star recruited into an interdimensional death tournament. Reviewers note that Urban’s arc from burned-out egotist to reluctant hero gives the film an emotional anchor it badly needs, and that his dynamic with Josh Lawson’s resurrected Kano provides the movie’s most entertaining stretches. Lawson, who was already a highlight of the 2021 film, reportedly dials things up to eleven here — described by one critic as “too corrupt to be corrupted further” — and steals nearly every scene he’s in.

Adeline Rudolph’s Kitana also earns praise, with her backstory — watching her father King Jerrod lose his realm of Edenia to the villainous Shao Kahn as a child — providing the sequel’s emotional spine. CJ Bloomfield’s Baraka, brought to life through prosthetics and practical makeup, is called out as a standout among the film’s many fighters. And the fight choreography overall gets strong marks, particularly a mid-film showdown between Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and a resurrected Kung Lao (Max Huang) set against an ethereal blue portal that fans of the Sega Genesis games will immediately recognize.

Director Simon McQuoid, returning from the 2021 film, gets credit for giving the action room to breathe — wider shots instead of rapid-fire cuts, fighters with distinct styles, fatalities that reportedly drew cheers at screenings rather than groans.

The criticism, where it exists, tends to cluster around the same issues. Villain Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) is widely described as a one-note “final boss” whose immortality-granting MacGuffin amulet drains tension from the fight sequences. The script, written by Jeremy Slater, is called overstuffed — too many realms, too many rules, not enough internal logic. The tournament’s Elder Gods are repeatedly cited as a plot hole: if Shao Kahn and Shang Tsung are constantly cheating, why don’t they intervene? And fan favorites Hiroyuki Sanada (Scorpion) and Joe Taslim (Sub-Zero), who drove much of the 2021 film’s energy, are largely sidelined until the third act.

The Wall Street Journal called it “vulgar, violent, vacuous.” The Detroit News gave it a D+, arguing it lacks the cheesy charm of the original and that McQuoid can’t quite balance the film’s competing tones — the self-serious mythology stuff sitting awkwardly beside Cage and Kano’s irreverent banter. But the majority of critics land somewhere in the “entertaining enough” zone: a bloody, crowd-pleasing action movie that knows exactly what it is and mostly delivers on that promise.

The Producer Weighs In

Not everyone connected to the film was content to let the reviews speak for themselves. Producer Todd Garner took to X to call out the negative notices — even as the majority were positive. “Some of these reviews are cracking me up,” Garner wrote. “It’s clear they have never played the game and have no idea what the fans want or ANY of the rules/canon of Mortal Kombat. One reviewer was mad that a guy ‘had a laser eye!’ Why the [frick] do we still allow people that don’t have any love for the genre review these movies! Baffling.”

When followers pointed out that most of the reviews had actually been favorable, Garner clarified he was reacting to a handful of specific quotes. Still, the post drew some pushback — one commenter noted that Garner probably shouldn’t be “tossing any stones” about lore accuracy given that the films invented the character Cole Young and reportedly got key details about Kitana and Mileena wrong. The whole exchange was, to put it charitably, a very online moment for a movie that’s already winning.

The full cast includes Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Ludi Lin, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Tadanobu Asano, Chin Han, Damon Herriman, Max Huang, Hiroyuki Sanada, Joe Taslim, CJ Bloomfield, Ana Thu Nguyen, and Martyn Ford as Shao Kahn. Game co-creator Ed Boon also appears in a cameo as “Ed the Bartender.” The film is rated R, runs 116 minutes, and is playing in standard theaters and IMAX.

Whether Mortal Kombat II tops the weekend chart or gets edged out by The Devil Wears Prada 2, it’s already done something none of its predecessors managed: made critics and fans mostly agree. That’s a foundation the franchise hasn’t had before — and if a third film gets greenlit, it’ll be starting from a much stronger position than any previous Mortal Kombat movie ever did.