‘Street Fighter’ Gets Knocked Out at the Box Office With a Brutal Second-Weekend Collapse

Video game adaptations have enjoyed a much better run at the movies lately, and a live-action ‘Street Fighter’ seemed like a natural next contender. Paramount and Legendary packed the film with wrestlers, rappers and a hulking Jason Momoa, all aimed at an arcade-sized crowd-pleaser. For about a week, the fight looked like it might go the distance.

The film arrived on October 16 with a sprawling ensemble led by Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken Masters and Callina Liang as Chun-Li. Set in 1993, it follows the estranged fighters as they are recruited into the World Warrior Tournament, with David Dastmalchian as M. Bison, Cody Rhodes as Guile and Roman Reigns as Akuma. It was also the first movie released under Legendary’s new three-year distribution deal with Paramount.

STREET FIGHTER bombed harder than expected on its 2nd weekend, dropping an insane -72% for a $46M domestic total. Holding a budget of $82M, it’s expected to lose Paramount over $50M. https://t.co/Epay4wLuCY

— Global Box Office (@GlobalBoxOffice) October 25, 2026

Now the ‘Street Fighter’ box office story has taken a painful turn. The film earned just $8.6M in its second weekend across 3,575 theaters, a steep 72% drop that brings its domestic total to roughly $46.9M. With an $82M budget, one projection has the movie losing Paramount more than $50M.

The collapse is especially notable because the opening looked promising on paper. It debuted with $31M domestically and about $51.1M worldwide, which was a franchise record but fell short of the roughly $70M analysts had expected. International business has been modest, with the overseas total sitting around $20.1M.

By the numbers, the fall is historic for the studio. It is Paramount’s sixth-biggest second-weekend drop for a non-concert movie, behind ‘Scream 7’ at 73.3%. A decline of that size also leaves it behind its biggest rival in the genre.

‘Mortal Kombat II’ earned $13.4M in its second weekend, a 65.2% drop from its opening. That film also opened bigger, with $38.5M domestically and $63M globally. The comparison matters because both movies adapt popular fighting game franchises, and ‘Street Fighter’ has now lost the head-to-head in nearly every category.

Part of the problem was the mixed word of mouth. Critics have been harsh, with the film sitting between 41% and 45% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 45 on Metacritic. Reviews praised the leads, the action and the film’s look, while criticizing a sloppy script, juvenile humor and an abrupt, sequel-bait ending.

Audiences were friendlier on paper, with an audience score around 80%. But the all-important CinemaScore grade was a B-, the same mark earned by the 1994 film and a notch below the B for ‘Mortal Kombat II’. That kind of grade often signals that fans rush out on opening weekend and then stop recommending the movie to friends.

It is worth remembering that the new film is not a total failure by franchise standards. Its $31M opening more than doubled the debut of either earlier ‘Street Fighter’ movie, which opened at $6.9M in 1994 and $4.7M in 2009. It also passed the entire domestic run of the 1994 film, making it the highest-grossing movie in the franchise in the US.

Those milestones do not change the math for a film that cost $82M to make. After claiming the No. 1 spot on opening weekend, it fell to second place by Monday, when A24’s ‘You Can See Everything’ took the daily top spot. By this weekend, it had dropped all the way to fourth place on the domestic chart.

PERFECT! Watch the New Trailer for Street Fighter, hitting theaters everywhere October 16. https://t.co/jAAPf1k9jf

— Street Fighter Movie (@Street_Fighter) September 1, 2026

The film also had the bad luck of landing in a busy market. This weekend, DC’s ‘Clayface’ opened with $24M and narrowly beat ‘You Can See Everything’, which earned $19.5M in its second weekend. Another new release, ‘Wildwood’, opened decently as well, which left less room for a movie already losing steam.

That context makes the numbers look even bleaker. A film that does not hold audiences tends to disappear quickly from theaters, and some outlets have already written off the chances of a sequel. The ending that teases more story may now be the most ironic part of the whole project.

For Paramount, this is yet another box office disappointment in a rough stretch for the newly merged studio. The bigger question is what the result means for the genre itself, after several recent hits made video game movies look like a safe bet. A big opening followed by a rapid collapse is a reminder that fandom alone does not guarantee staying power.

The film still has a long road ahead, with its total depending on how it plays internationally in the weeks to come. If the current pace holds, it will struggle to reach the kind of number that makes the economics work.

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