Remember when Street Fighter star Andrew Schulz called out Mortal Kombat II at the 2025 Game Awards? The comedian mocked the movie's cast for not attending the event and told attendees, "They don’t care about you; they only care about money."
Well, whether that's true or not, it seems the Mortal Kombat sequel will be the eventual box office victor...at least when it comes to Thursday previews.
Deadline has learned that Street Fighter earned $4 million from early screenings, easily KO'ing competition from You Can See Everything ($1.75 million), Sense & Sensibility ($1.15 million), and Whalefall ($900,000).
While this is a solid start for Street Fighter, it's behind the $5.2 million made by Mortal Kombat II in May. That went on to gross $38.5 million during its opening weekend, though the movie was considered a financial disappointment with a final global haul of $129.5 million.
Street Fighter is eyeing a $30+ million opening weekend, and with a reported $82 million production budget, it cost roughly the same as the Mortal Kombat sequel. With 46% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to Mortal Kombat II's 63%, it's already the loser in this video game adaptation battle critically. Street Fighter does, however, have 82% on the audience-generated Popcornmeter.
Addressing the backlash to his remarks, Schulz recently told IGN, "I read what was on the prompter. I thought that we were gonna turn into Barbenheimer. You know, rising tides lift all boats."
"I was waiting for a thank you!" he joked. "You know, we used our platform to promote our movie to promote another movie! I feel like that's a very generous thing to do!"
Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury. But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s "Game Over!"
Helmed by director Kitao Sakurai, Street Fighter is set to bring the battle from the arcade to the big screen with Hadoukens, roundhouses, and all your favourite characters.
The movie stars Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Andrew Koji as Ryu, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, Joe "Roman Reigns" Anoai as Akuma, David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile, Andrew Schulz as Dan Hibiki, Vidyut Jammwal as Dhalsim, Eric André as Don Sauvage, with Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson as Balrog, and Jason Momoa as Blanka.
The supporting cast includes Orville Peck as Vega, Olivier Richters as Zangief, Hirooki Goto as E. Honda, Rayna Vallandingham as Juli, Alexander Volkanovski as Joe, Kyle Mooney as Marvin, and Mel Jarnson as Cammy.
Street Fighter is now playing in theaters.