Street Fighter Opened at $31 Million, Which Is a Win With the Volume Down

The room that argued after the premiere has a receipt now. Street Fighter opened at $31 million in North America, Friday $13 million, Saturday $10.8 million, Sunday $7.2 million, from 3,575 theaters. International added about $20.1 million. Worldwide, Screen Daily put the punch at roughly $51 million, enough for global No. 1, and the lowest chart-topping weekend since Practical Magic 2 managed $46 million in mid-September.

Paramount wanted more. Deadline’s read is that $31 million sits about 19 percent under Mortal Kombat 2’s $38.5 million start, and early hopes had floated nearer $70 million worldwide. CinemaScore handed out a B-, under both recent Mortal Kombat movies. Definite recommend landed at 65 percent. Kids under 12 were only 11 percent of the audience. Men over 35 were the bloc that showed up, about 45 percent. Premium large format and Imax did 58 percent of the domestic weekend, and Imax alone contributed $7.7 million of the global opening. The UK led overseas at $3.3 million, then Mexico, Australia, Brazil and France.

The budget is reported at $82 million. A $51 million start does not retire that, once theaters and advertising take their cut, but it is not a $100 million problem either. The 1994 Jean-Claude Van Damme version opened at $6.8 million and finished around $33.4 million domestic, $99 million worldwide, unadjusted. This new one matched that old domestic total before Monday. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes sat near 80 percent. The social math going in was louder than the ticket math coming out. For a game movie, that is a familiar shape: the timeline was a knockout, the weekend was a decision.