UAE box office: Mortal Kombat still a big hit in Dubai

Mortal Kombat is the strongest fighter at the UAE box office once again.

The film muscled up another 10,000 admissions for a 10 day total of 66,366 in the UAE. It’s on pace to cross $1 million at the UAE box office in the coming weeks.

The take so far has been hugely positive for the rebooted franchise based on the bloody and beloved video game series, which had an incredibly fun and underrated outing in cinemas in 1995 under the same title, followed by the lets-pretend-that-never-happened sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation a few years later.

The film, directed by Simon McQuoid and starring Lewis Tan, Mehcad Brooks and Joe Taslim, follows a group of fighters from Earth chosen for an interdimensional tournament who are being picked off one by one by the champions of the other dimensions before the tournament has a chance to begin. If they lose, Earth will be lost.

The fan reaction has been positive as well, and with the film intended to be a franchise starter, things are trending positively thus far.

Hear from the cast about how they approached the film’s fight scenes here.

Godzilla vs. Kong stayed at number two in its fourth week, bringing in another nearly 6,000 people for a total of nearly 315,000. It’s approaching $5 million at the UAE box office alone.

It continues to be most impressive tally since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with no film selling more tickets since cinema restrictions started after reopening post-lockdown last year.

Godzilla vs. Kong, a combined sequel to Kong: Skull Island (2017) and Godzilla: King of Monsters (2019), has been a huge hit across the world. So far, the film has grossed $390 million worldwide, a huge positive as the box office recovers from the pandemic.

The 2014 Godzilla film and Kong: Skull Island in 2017 both grossed between $500 and 600 million pre-pandemic, and Godzilla: King of Monsters in 2019 made $386 million worldwide also pre-pandemic.

To spell it out, that means that the latest Godzilla film has done better business than the last did before COVID restrictions began.

The film is directed by Adam Wingard, who previously helmed horror films such as You’re Next, The Guest and Death Note.

Esquire Middle East spoke to star Alexander Skarsgård about the film, as well as his love of death metal and the film’s pro wrestling influences.

The film has been a hit with critics, Certified Fresh at 75 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes with over 300 reviews counted.

Nobody, the action film starring Bob Odenkirk stayed at to seventh place, bringing in nearly 2,000 people for an 83,000 total, putting it ahead of Mortal Kombat in its 5^th week, an impressive showing.

Both Raya and the Last Dragon and Tom & Jerry stayed in the top ten in seventh and 10th weeks respectively, with Raya in the fifth spot and Tom and Jerry in the ninth.

Cumulatively, Raya and the Last Dragon has brought in 120,000 people, with Tom and Jerry reaching 181,000 tickets sold.

Raya and the Last Dragon, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina, is set in a fictional kingdom called Kumandra, based on the culture of Southeast Asia, where humans and dragons once lived in harmony, before the world fell into disarray. The story follows young princess named Raya goes on a journey to find the last known dragon in existence and once again unite the kingdom.

The film has gotten a hugely positive reception from critics and audiences alike. The film currently holds a 96 percent critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.6/10 on IMDb, which is fan-voted.

Esquire Middle East spoke to writer Adele Lim and producer Osnat Shurer about the origins of the film, and why they changed Raya to be a Disney Princess.

Best Picture nominee Promising Young Woman opened in eight place with 1,655 tickets sold, staying on par with recent Best Picture nominees in recent weeks.

Malayam film Chatur Mikham opened in third place with 4,462.