WarnerMedia Says Mortal Kombat Is A Top Asset For Them

For fans, Mortal Kombat is a beloved property that’s thrived for almost three decades and spawned several feature films and TV shows in both live-action and animation, but at the end of the day, it’s viewed as a marketable commodity in the eyes of Warner Bros. and nothing more.

Longtime supporters of both the console series and Simon McQuoid’s recent reboot may have almost instantly labeled the recent pic as the best video game adaptation ever made, and its audience score of 86% is significantly higher than the 55% bestowed upon it by critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but if it hadn’t turned a sizeable enough profit, then any plans for a multi-movie franchise would have fallen at the first hurdle.

Luckily, then, Mortal Kombat hauled in over $81 million at the box office on a $55 million budget and has proven to be a massive success on HBO Max, to the extent that WarnerMedia executive vice president Brad Wilson described it as a top asset for the company, as you can read below.

“Mortal Kombat was an interesting title for us, because I will say that while we expected it to do well, we did not expect it to do as well as it did. It’s been one of our top assets on the platform. And those customers are now crossing over into watching all the other great titles that we typically see, but also some of the great library content that we have with Friends, The Big Bang Theory, The Sopranos, etc.”

As things stand, a sequel hasn’t officially been given the green light as of yet, but that hasn’t stopped stories from making the rounds about everything from cinematic universes and episodic projects to additional animated efforts and much more. As an asset, one that’s been highly malleable over the years in terms of diversifying itself into new revenue streams, nothing can be taken off the table now that Mortal Kombat appears to have won over some of the boardroom skeptics, many of whom were doubtful that the violent and gory R-rated fantasy martial arts actioner could be viable for further exploration in terms of both short and long-form storytelling.