Street Fighter got off to an okay start on the weekend, punching its way to a $31 million opening at the US box office and a number one debut. That’s below the domestic opening weekend of Mortal Kombat 2 earlier this year ($38.5 million), and globally, it made $20.1 million. That brings the worldwide start to $51.1 million so far, well below the original estimate of $70 million for the action movie.
During early Thursday results, Street Fighter got off to a $4 million start at the US box office, per Deadline. That’s below Mortal Kombat 2’s Thursday start ($5.2 million), but for perspective, Sonic the Hedgehog made even less on its first day ($3 million) and still became a hit. Could Street Fighter follow the same trajectory? This first weekend should be a solid indicator if it’s a hit or a miss.
Street Fighter is the second movie based on a Capcom IP to make its way to the silver screen this year–following Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil film in September–but early estimates for the martial arts extravaganza hinted at an uphill battle for it.
Typically, movies need to make at least double their production budget back to be considered successful, and with Street Fighter costing $82 million to produce, it doesn’t look like it’ll recoup its expenses in its first weekend.
There’s still a chance it could be a small hit if word of mouth drives audiences to theaters, and in terms of competition, Street Fighter has a few weeks to dominate cinemas as it’ll be the biggest action film on the block–at least until the November 1 re-release of V for Vendetta, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The movie won’t open in the potentially lucrative market of China, but internationally, the lion’s share of sales is expected to come from Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Australia, and Asian markets.
How does that opening stack up against other recent video game movie adaptations? Resident Evil got off to a solid start with a $60 million domestic opening last month, and so far, the film has grossed $324 million worldwide, making it a surprise commercial hit and Cregger’s biggest film yet. Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat 2 did much worse when it launched in May, making only $38 million on its opening US weekend and finishing with a worldwide box office total of $129.5 million.
As for the other Street Fighter movies, they’ve had mixed results. According to Box Office Mojo, the first Street Fighter movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme made $99.4 million during its run, which is pretty great for a 1994 flick, but 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li was a huge flop. It had an opening weekend of $4.7 million in the US, and it made $12.7 million worldwide.
“The latest attempt at bringing Capcom’s iconic franchise to the big screen has its moments but is mostly messy and largely forgettable,” Lisa Wallen wrote in GameSpot’s Street Fighter movie review.
Street Fighter movies lifetime box office totals
- Street Fighter (1994) — $99.4 million
- Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) — $12.7 million
- Street Fighter (2026) — $51.1 million
