Street Fighter takes a The Flash–level box office nosedive
Thought video game adaptations were box-office bankers — live-action Street Fighter has taken a hammering, with a second-week slump to rival The Flash.
Right, it looked like Street Fighter had every reason to pack out the cinemas. Fresh off the back of gaming adaptations actually making decent money for once, Paramount and Legendary figured they were on to a sure thing. Wrestlers, Jason Momoa lumbering about, a budget that would make any producer sweat—what could possibly go wrong?
Despite an $82 million budget, Street Fighter has only managed $8.6 million in its second weekend, with a worldwide gross stuck on $79.6 million.
The Numbers Game
So, here’s how the box office tallies shake out. Street Fighter opened wide on 16 October and kicked off with $31 million in the US, nabbing around $51.1 million internationally for opening weekend—apparently a record for the franchise. Still, that’s only half what the suits were whispering about pre-release—analysts wanted to see a $70 million home run. Not even close, really.
Week two is where things really go sideways. The film nosedived, falling a whopping 72% and scraping together just $8.6 million from 3,575 cinemas. That drags its US total up to roughly $46.9 million. If you’re keeping score, Paramount now faces projections of a $50 million loss on the whole thing. Not ideal. For context, Scream 7 managed to drop even faster with a 73.3% cliff dive, but coming in sixth for worst second-week dip isn’t the badge of honour anyone wants.
The international crowd hasn’t been much help either, tallying only around $20.1 million. All told, Street Fighter has hovered at about $79.6 million worldwide, with nearly 60% of that coming from American tickets. When you’ve spent $82 million making the thing, let alone marketing, that sort of box office result is going to sting.
Who Else Benefits?
As Street Fighter stumbled, a few other films nipped in to grab the spotlight. The Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything jumped up the ranks after expanding its release, going from 855 to 2,655 cinemas in week two, landing at No. 2 just behind Street Fighter. Clayface, DC’s latest punt at the big screen, suddenly found itself with more competition for attention than expected.
Newcomers Wildwood (Laika’s stop-motion fantasy, think on the lines of Kubo and the Two Strings) managed a No. 3 debut with $12.6 million. The randy comedy Wicker opened further down at No. 5, but that’s mostly because it only showed up in 1,471 theatres.
If you’re wondering why the suits at Legendary might be panicking, here’s your trivia for the week: this version of Street Fighter marks Legendary’s first release under its three-year distribution deal with Paramount. Not the fairy tale kickoff they were hoping for.