The Mortal Kombat reboot was recently hit with another delay, but it was a very minor one by the standards of the last twelve months. The martial arts fantasy actioner will now debut one week later than intended on April 23rd, in what was described as a move designed to give the freshly-released Godzilla vs. Kong time to breathe at the box office and on HBO Max.
However, the more cynical among us could view the decision as a way to get staunch supporters of Zack Snyder’s Justice League to renew their subscriptions. The massive amount of new customers who may’ve signed up to the platform specifically to see the Snyder Cut before watching it on repeat to support the #RestoreTheSnyderVerse movement would have had 48 hours to watch Mortal Kombat before the first month was up and they could cancel.
By shunting the video game adaptation back by a week, though, anyone that’s on the fence about whether or not to continue shelling out the monthly fee no longer has the option to check out Simon McQuoid’s feature debut before they need to make that decision. Either way, it’s been a hell of a few weeks for WarnerMedia’s in-house service with Justice League, Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat all arriving within the space of 35 days.
The Snyder Cut has led to a 60% increase in viewership across HBO Max already, and it’ll be interesting to see if that level of growth continues as the four-hour DCEU epic finally gets replaced at the top of the pop culture totem pole, first by Godzilla vs. Kong and then Mortal Kombat, as Warner Bros.’ bold call to give all of their 2021 movies a hybrid release continues to reap the rewards both theatrically and on streaming.
