Street Fighter Breaks Franchise Box Office Record

For nearly four decades and spanning six mainline titles along with numerous spinoffs and re-releases, Street Fighter has solidified its place as a cornerstone of gaming culture. However, translating this iconic martial arts saga into film has been a challenge, with past adaptations receiving a mixed bag of reactions from both fans and critics.

This weekend marked the theatrical release of the much-anticipated new Street Fighter movie, offering fans their third live-action take on the beloved franchise. While opinions on the film are once again split, it has achieved at least one notable success: it has set a new franchise record, surpassing its predecessors with ease.

Debuting on October 16, the film’s opening weekend is being hailed as a triumph. According to BoxOfficeMojo, Street Fighter raked in $31 million domestically during its first weekend, significantly outpacing other new releases, including Nathan Fielder’s documentary You Can See Everything, which earned $15 million, and Austin Abrams’ survival flick Whalefall, which managed just $8 million.

The real victory for Street Fighter lies in its performance against earlier adaptations. The 1994 film featuring Jean Claude Van Damme as Guile opened to a mere $6.8 million domestically and finished with a total of $33 million. Globally, that film ended its run with a $99 million gross. In contrast, the 2010 adaptation, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, starring Kristin Kreuk, opened even lower at $4.7 million and only grossed $12.7 million worldwide. The new film has already outperformed the opening weekends of both previous live-action adaptations combined.

While critics have not embraced any of the live-action Street Fighter films, the latest installment is resonating with fans. After its opening weekend, the new Street Fighter boasts a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 79%, a stark contrast to the 20% score of the 1994 film and the even lower 18% for The Legend of Chun-Li.

Despite its promising start, the new Street Fighter has a long way to go to recoup its $82 million budget. It is also facing unfavorable comparisons to its fighting game movie rival, Mortal Kombat 2, which opened to $38.5 million domestically and ultimately grossed $129 million, despite being considered a financial disappointment against its $80 million budget. Fans are left wondering if the teased Street Fighter 2 at the end of the film will come to fruition.

Directed and co-written by Kitao Sakurai, the movie features Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, and Callina Liang as Chun-Li, alongside a star-studded cast including Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoa’i as Akuma, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog, Jason Momoa as Blanka, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Mel Jarnson as Cammy, Orville Peck as Vega, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Eric André as Don Sauvage, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, and Kyle Mooney as Marvin.

Not even Ryu can Hadouken his way out of this one.