UAE box office: Mortal Kombat defeats all challengers to stay #1

Nothing was able to defeat Mortal Kombat at the UAE box office in its third week.

The action film won an additional 8,000 admissions for the weekend of April 22 to 24, bringing its three-week total to 80,000 tickets sold.

The film is still quickly approaching $1 million at the UAE box office, a major feat in the COVID-19 era.

The box office total 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 largely positive as well, and with the film intended to be a franchise starter, things are trending positively thus far.

The film has grossed $51 million worldwide since opening.

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

Godzilla vs. Kong stayed at number two in its fifth week, bringing in 4,300 people for a 321,337 admissions total. It’s approaching $5 million at the UAE box office alone.

G vs. K’s box office result 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.

The film has now crossed $400 million at the global box office, 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 rose back to fifth place, bringing in another nearly 2,000 people for an 86,500 total, keeping 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 their eighth and 11th weeks respectively, with Raya rising to the fourth spot and Tom and Jerry in the eigth.

Cumulatively, Raya and the Last Dragon has brought in 123,000 people, with Tom and Jerry reaching 183,000 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 and Oscar winner Minari opened at 13^th with 708 tickets sold.

Other Oscar winners including The Father, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman and more are still in UAE theaters.

Read our full guide to how to watch the 2021 Oscar winners.

Here’s our full ranking and reviews of the 2021 Best Picture nominees.

Shrine, a horror film starring Jeffery Dean Morgan, opened in third with 3000 admissions. Voyagers opened in sixth with 1,650 admissions. The Swordsman opened in 12^th with 822 admissions.