Fact: people love Mortal Kombat. The ultra-violent fighting video game that made “Finish Him!!” part of the lexicon has had a grip on fans since debuting in 1992, and extended to the original live-action film in 1995, and the most recent reboot in 2021 that made $84M worldwide and had a red band trailer that scored over 100M views. That fanbase is back in equally high numbers for the sequel, Mortal Kombat II, as the red band trailer released last week scored 106.8M in its first 24 hours of release.
The Mortal Kombat II trailer dropped last week on July 17th while I was out of town, so I was one of the few who missed it, apparently. The data from WaveMetrix (via Deadline) indicates that the 106.8M views is an all-time record for a red band trailer. Mortal Kombat was also a red-band record breaker, attracting 116M views in the first week.
Simon McQuoid returns to direct Mortal Kombat II, joined by writer Jeremy Slater. Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Lewis Tan, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sanada, return, joined by new additions Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, and Tati Gabrielle.
These numbers are a good sign. The first film was released simultaneously in theaters and HBO Max streaming, and yet it still managed to find success. When Mortal Kombat II opens on October 24th, we’ll get to see what the full potential of this franchise is on the big screen.
