Video game movie reboot Mortal Kombat may have seen its box office numbers slow to a crawl over the last few weeks, although it’s still turned out to be theatrically profitable having earned more than $81 million against a $55 million budget, but it looks as if a strong showing on HBO Max could be just as key to getting a sequel greenlit as its big screen performance.
WarnerMedia’s service has never released concrete viewing figures for any of its originals or exclusives, much to the chagrin and irritation of supporters desperate to know the full story behind Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but third-party aggregator Samba TV have provided as much data as they can, with the findings indicating that Mortal Kombat scored more HBO Max viewers in its first three days than Godzilla vs. Kong managed in five, and the company touted the latter as the biggest streaming debut in the platform’s history.
By that logic, the pic has to be viewed as an unqualified success, and it’s not as if the key members of the creative team, the cast or the final shot of the movie itself are shy when it comes to the desire to launch an entire franchise. In a new interview, WarnerMedia’s executive vice president Brad Wilson revealed that the martial arts actioner had far exceeded expectations, but he didn’t go so far as to drop any actual numbers or confirm whether or not Warner Bros. has any plans locked in for future installments.
“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.”
At this point, it seems that the official announcement of a Mortal Kombat follow-up should really just be a formality, and we imagine it won’t be too much longer before Warner Bros. gives the fans what they want and reveals that a sequel is indeed in the works.
