{"id":1303,"date":"2026-05-09T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/09\/box-office-mortal-kombat-ii-tops-friday-but-continues-to-battle-prada-2-for-mothers-day-win\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T15:46:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:46:00","slug":"box-office-mortal-kombat-ii-tops-friday-but-continues-to-battle-prada-2-for-mothers-day-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/09\/box-office-mortal-kombat-ii-tops-friday-but-continues-to-battle-prada-2-for-mothers-day-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Box Office: \u2018Mortal Kombat II\u2019 Tops Friday but Continues to Battle \u2018Prada 2\u2019 for Mother\u2019s Day Win"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tIn a battle of the genders, New Line\u2019s video game adaptation\u00a0<\/em><\/a>Mortal Kombat II<\/a><\/em> and 20th Century\u2019s The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/em> are in a close race for No. 1 at the domestic box office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\tThe Mortal Kombat <\/em>sequel, fueled by males, topped Friday with an opening-day gross of $17 million range, including $5.2 million in previews and special Imax sneaks. That puts it on course for a domestic opening in the $40 million to $41 million range; ditto for Prada 2<\/a><\/em>, which came in second Friday with $9.8 million for a stellar domestic total of $111.6 million and well north of $300 million globally. \t<\/p>\n

\tHeading into the weekend, some tracking services showed Mortal Kombat II<\/a><\/em> opening to $45 million or more in North America. New Line and parent company Warner Bros., however, had always predicted a far more conservative launch in the $35 million range to $40 million range for a worldwide bow anywhere between $65 million and $80 million. Males made up more than 75 percent of Friday\u2019s North American audience, which bestowed the film with a B+ CinemaScore.<\/p>\n

\tOverseas, Mortal Kombat II<\/em>\u2018s cume through Friday was $8.9 million for an early worldwide total of $25.9 million. In terms of the global weekend chart, Prada 2<\/a><\/em> is expected to come in at No. 1.<\/p>\n

\tIn 2021, the first\u00a0Mortal Kombat\u00a0<\/em>debuted simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max due to the ongoing pandemic. The violent-laced martial arts pic was a huge streaming hit; theatrically, it debuted to $23 million on its way to topping out at $42 million domestically and $84.4 million globally. Simon McQuoid returning to helm Mortal Kombat II<\/em> from a script by Jeremy Slater and\u00a0Karl Urban joining<\/a> the franchise as fan favorite character Johnny Cage, a washed up \u201990s action star called to take part in a tournament that will determine the fate of Earthrealm. \t<\/p>\n

\tThe victor of the weekend box office will all come down to Mother\u2019s Day traffic. That would seem to give Prada 2<\/a> an advantage, since it\u2019s fast on its way to becoming the biggest female-driven film since Warner Bros.\u2019\u00a0Barbie<\/em>\u00a0in 2023 after kicking off the summer box office<\/a> last weekend in high style. The sequel finished Friday with a global total north of the $326 million earned by the first film in its entire run.<\/p>\n

\tAnd don\u2019t forget about Lionsgate\u2019s Michael Jackson biopic, which should earn a fantastic $35 million-plus in its third weekend for a projected domestic tally of $240 million and $570 million globally through Sunday. On Friday, it overtook the $216.7 million earned by Bohemian Rhapsody<\/em> to become the top-grossing music biopic of all time in North America, not adjusted for inflation. And in a second milestone of the day, it crossed $500 million worldwide.<\/p>\n

\tOther new Mother\u2019s Day offerings, in addition to Mortal Kombat II<\/em>, include Amazon MGM\u2019s\u00a0The Sheep Detectives<\/em><\/a>. The critically acclaimed film is headed for a fourth-place finish with a pleasing domestic opening of $14 million to $15 million after earning an A CinemaScore. The comedy-mystery follows a flock of talking sheep who are determined to solve the suspicious death of their beloved shepherd, played by\u00a0Hugh Jackman<\/a>, who read them detective novels on a regular basis despite having no idea they could understand him. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, directors of 2026 box office hit\u00a0Project Hail Mary<\/a><\/em>, are among the film\u2019s executive producers. \t<\/p>\n

\tParamount\u2019s new concert film Billie Eilish\u00a0\u2014 Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)<\/a><\/em>, which James Cameron and the artist co-directed, is expected to round out the top five with a domestic opening of $8 million. The pic is coming in on the higher end of expectations (the same goes for Sheep Detectives<\/em>). Cameron pioneered special 3D\u00a0cameras designed to make moviegoers feel as if they were part of a live experience that he used when filming Eilish.<\/p>\n

\tAnd thanks to the appeal of the crowded Mother\u2019s Day marquee, domestic box office revenue is expected to be up more than 87 percent over the same frame last year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a battle of the genders, New Line\u2019s video game adaptation\u00a0Mortal Kombat II and 20th Century\u2019s The Devil Wears Prada 2 are in a close race for No. 1 at the domestic box office. The Mortal Kombat sequel, fueled by males, topped Friday with an opening-day gross of $17 million range, including $5.2 million in previews and special Imax sneaks. That puts it on course for a domestic opening in the $40 million to $41 million range; ditto for Prada 2, which came in second Friday with $9.8 million for a stellar domestic total of $111.6 million and well north of $300 million globally. Heading into the weekend, some tracking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[83,2,768,27,60,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-box-office","category-hollywood","category-mortal-kombat-ii","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-the-devil-wears-prada-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}