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Finish him! Mortal Kombat has knocked both Godzilla and Kong off the top spot at the UAE box office.
Mortal Kombat won 42,292 admissions in the three day period from April 8 to 10, which is roughly $465,000 in ticket sales.
That’s a huge win for the rebooted franchise based on the bloody and beloved video game series, that 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.
Godzilla vs. Kong fell to number two in its third week, bringing in 22,262 people for a 302,241 cumulative total. That’s a box office tally of $4.2 million approximately in three weeks.
It’s the 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, setting a pandemic record of $48.5 million in the United States last weekend.
So far, the film has grossed $338.6 million worldwide. The film is tracking well ahead of 2014’s Godzilla film, as well as ahead of Godzilla King of Monsters and similar to Kong: Skull Island in 2017 pre-pandemic.
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 fell to seventh place, bringing in 6,000 people. The film didn’t fare well with so much action film competition, though it did manage to cross the $1 million mark.
Both Raya and the Last Dragon and Tom & Jerry stayed in the top ten in their sixth and ninth weeks respectively, with Raya in the sixth spot and Tom and Jerry in the eighth.
Cumulatively, Raya and the Last Dragon has brought in 116,000 people, with Tom and Jerry reaching 179,000 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.
Also opening strong were the Telugu film Vakeel Saab in third place with 15,000 tickets sold, Karnan in Tamil with 14,400 tickets sold for fourth place, and Nayattuu in Malayam with 6,000 tickets sold and fifth place.
Also opening was the Clark Duke helmed film The Crime Boss, featuring Liam Hemsworth, which opened with 2,000 tickets sold in 10th place.
Love, Wedding and Other Disasters opened with under 1,000 tickets sold, featuring Jeremy Irons and and Diane Keaton, and Wasp Network with Ana de Armas also opening with under 1000 tickets.
Kung Fu Mulan, which fell out of cinemas in China after only three days, opened with 1,200 tickets sold for 13th place.
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