Paramount is probably not popping champagne over this one. Street Fighter brought in an estimated $31 million across the Oct. 16-18 weekend, which was enough to win the weekend but landed right in line with projections rather than blowing past them. A win is a win, I guess, but let’s not pretend this is a victory lap.
A B-Minus And A Reality Check
I have defended video game adaptations for years, and I am not stopping now. The 1994 Street Fighter movie is a masterpiece of unintentional comedy, and I will take that opinion to my grave. This new one pulled $13 million on Friday, including Thursday previews from 3,575 theaters, which is solid business for a franchise that once gave us Jean-Claude Van Damme doing splits in a military uniform for reasons nobody has ever explained. A B- CinemaScore is not the disaster some people are making it out to be. This genre has survived worse.
The Budget Math Is Not Great
The film cost $82 million, co-financed by Legendary and Capcom with Paramount handling distribution. This marks the first release under Paramount’s distribution deal with Legendary after the project originally sat at Sony. Add in a projected $35 million from 65 overseas markets and the worldwide opening landed at $51.1 million, which makes the math look less terrifying than the domestic number alone suggests.
Critics gave it 42 percent on Rotten Tomatoes while audiences coughed up an 82 percent score, which tells you everything about the gap between people who review movies and people who actually buy tickets. One critic called it a jumbled tonal mess that is only sporadically entertaining. That critic clearly never sat through Raul Julia as M. Bison chewing scenery like it was his last meal.
The Holmes Doc Actually Crushed It
“You Can See Everything,” A24’s documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, pulled in $15 million from just 855 locations. That included $5.5 million Friday and over 2,000 sellout screenings. This thing landed as the second-largest non-musical documentary debut ever, behind only “Fahrenheit 9/11.” People really love watching wealthy people lie badly, I suppose. A documentary about a blood testing scam outperforming most scripted releases this weekend says something deeply weird about us as a species.
Other Mommy Takes A Nose Dive
Universal’s horror flick “Other Mommy” dropped about 70 percent from its opening weekend, landing at roughly $8.25 million. It still has around $44.9 million domestic total, so nobody is crying into their coffee. Jessica Chastain plays a sinister closet-dwelling spirit directed by Rob Savage, which sounds like the kind of pitch that gets greenlit after three margaritas and a yes from someone who owes you a favor. Horror always front-loads, so this is less a disaster and more the natural life cycle of a scary movie.
Whalefall Got Swallowed Whole
Disney’s “Whalefall” opened below expectations with roughly $8 million domestically, which is a polite way of saying it flopped. Add in overseas, and the worldwide total came to about $17.5 million, so the flop is at least a global effort. Austin Abrams stars as a scuba diver trapped inside a sperm whale, with Josh Brolin in a supporting role, and honestly the premise sounds like a fever dream someone had after eating gas station sushi at 2 a.m.
Critics gave it 71 percent while audiences handed over 81 percent, so the people who actually saw it did not hate it. One review said it was just not batshit crazy enough to be much fun, which is the most specific criticism I have ever read. The budget was reported at $60 million. That number is not comforting for anyone involved.
Austen Fans Showed Up Apparently
Focus Features released a “Sense and Sensibility” remake based on the Jane Austen novel, and reviewers gave it 75 percent approval with an 89 audience score. Tracking had it opening around $6.7 million domestically, a projection that would put it in line for the best opening ever for a period-set Jane Austen adaptation if it holds. That is a genuinely wild stat, and I refuse to let it slide by unnoticed. Nobody ever talks about how Sense and Sensibility is basically a 19th-century reality show about who marries whom for money.
History Says This Could Be Worse
The 1994 Street Fighter grossed $100 million unadjusted for inflation, while 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li managed just $12.8 million against a $50 million budget. That Chun-Li movie is genuinely one of the worst things ever committed to celluloid, and I say that with love. Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji star under director Kitao Sakurai. The whole thing has been building for months of pre-release coverage and speculation.
What Comes Next Is Anybody’s Guess
Studio estimates get finalized early in the week, which will clarify actual totals for “Whalefall” and “Sense and Sensibility.” Next weekend will show whether “Street Fighter” can hold off new competition and whether “You Can See Everything” can expand past 855 locations. My bias here is clear. I want “Street Fighter” to succeed because the alternative is a world where “Mortal Kombat 2” wins the fighting game movie war, and I simply cannot accept that timeline.
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