Mortal Kombat Opening Weekend Box Office Wins Out Over Demon Slayer

The Mortal Kombat reboot film appears to be the winner of the opening weekend box office, though it was anything but a flawless victory. The anime film Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train won the opening day box office battle, bringing in $9.5 million domestically at the box office on the opening day compared to Mortal Kombat's $9 million, but the overall weekend total for both films has swayed in the favor of Mortal Kombat rather than the Demon Slayer movie with the former scoring $22.5 million to the latter's $19.5 million.

The opening haul for Mortal Kombat appears to mark the biggest R-rated movie opening so far during the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes sense given the rising vaccination rates domestically leading to more folks feeling comfortable returning to theaters overall. This despite the fact that Mortal Kombat also released at the same time on Warner Bros.' streaming service HBO Max, which likely deflated turnout somewhat given that people could simply watch from home instead. By contrast, Mugen Train is not yet available digitally. This also appears to be the first time since the start of the pandemic that more than one film has grossed over $10 million during the same weekend, which seems promising for the future box office results.

TOP 5 DOMESTIC BOX OFFICE

1. MORTAL KOMBAT ($22M)
2. DEMON SLAYER ($19M)
3. GODZILLA VS KONG ($4M)
4. NOBODY ($1.8M)
5. RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON ($1.6M)

Domestically, this is the first time since the pandemic began that two films have grossed over $10M+ on the same weekend.

— Exhibitor Relations Co. (@ERCboxoffice) April 25, 2021

The Mortal Kombat reboot film is now available on HBO Max and also in theaters. Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train is also screening now in theaters. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the latest fighting video game adaptation right here, and all of our previous coverage of the popular anime film right here.

What do you think about this weekend's box office numbers? Are you interested in seeing either film in theaters? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!