UPDATE: Street Fighter is now projected to open between $30 million and $40 million, in line with Mortal Kombat II‘s opening before it bombed.
Street Fighter just pulled off the big rebound.
Two weeks ago, Paramount’s video game adaptation posted the worst numbers of any movie on The Quorum‘s eight-week chart, landing almost exactly where Masters of the Universe sat before He-Man bombed with a $29.3 million opening.
The new chart, which measures audience awareness of a movie and their interest in watching it, is in via Puck, and the slide is over.
Street Fighter now sits at 44 percent awareness, up 5 points, and 47 percent interest, up 8, ahead of its October 16 release.
That interest jump is the biggest of any movie on the chart.
Two weeks ago, Street Fighter lost 12 combined points, the most of any movie. This time it gained 13.
Street Fighter Just Left He-Man’s Numbers Behind
The He-Man comparison is the whole problem.
At nearly the same distance from release, He-Man’s numbers looked a lot like Street Fighter‘s did two weeks ago, and never got better.
Street Fighter just blew past them.
He-Man’s numbers barely moved for weeks before the $29.3 million opening and the crash that followed.
Street Fighter‘s are moving fast, in the right direction, a month before release.
And for the first time, more people want to see Street Fighter than simply know it exists, which means the audience wants to buy tickets.
On the same chart, Clayface â which out-polled Street Fighter two weeks ago â slipped behind it.
Only Resident Evil, which opens Friday, scores higher.
Closing In On Mortal Kombat II
Mortal Kombat II tracked better than any genre movie this spring, holding the best numbers of any of them all the way into release.
It bombed, opening to $38.5 million and finishing with $129.4 million worldwide.
Two weeks ago, Street Fighter was well under those numbers and falling.
Now the demand has nearly caught MK2‘s, with awareness the piece left to build and still a month to go to ramp things up.
Street Fighter is climbing into its biggest month of marketing.
Momoa, Reigns, And A Claw Machine
Two weeks ago, we noted Paramount still had the tools for a turnaround: another trailer, and a cast built for a promo blitz.
Both showed up the same day we published our article and the last chart did.
Paramount dropped a new trailer on September 1. Roman Reigns, who plays Akuma, posted it to Instagram, where it pulled in 402,000 likes and filled up with WWE fans ready to buy tickets.
“Roman vs Cody 3 in Street Fighter LFG,” wrote one, pointing to Cody Rhodes playing Guile after the two headlined back-to-back WrestleManias.
“Let’s be sincere with each other, this trailer hits harder than both Dooms day trailers,” wrote another.
The push hasn’t stopped since.
This week, the official Street Fighter account posted video of Jason Momoa â Blanka himself â taking on a claw machine at a GiGO arcade in Japan, captioned “Jason Momoa vs. the claw machine. FIGHT!”
It topped 30,000 likes in under a day. Momoa won a Leebit, the bunny plush tied to Stray Kids’ Lee Know, and pulled K-pop fans into the comments with it.
New stills of Andrew Koji’s Ryu, Callina Liang’s Chun-Li, and Noah Centineo’s Ken are making the rounds too.
Street Fighter Opens October 16
Street Fighter opens in theaters, IMAX, and RealD 3D on October 16. Kitao Sakurai directs for Paramount, Legendary, and Capcom.
Momoa, Reigns, Rhodes, David Dastmalchian, 50 Cent, and Orville Peck star alongside Koji, Liang, and Centineo.
The question two weeks ago was whether Paramount could reverse the slide. This chart answered it.
The next one, two weeks from release, will show how high the rebound goes.
