Predictions for Mortal Kombat 2 believe it will have a hard-fought Rotten Tomatoes rating. Releasing on May 8 in the United States, this upcoming action flick from Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema has had fairly strong projections at the box office so far. This is partly due to the video game adaptation focusing on Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage as he is recruited to fight in a martial arts tournament that will decide the fate of Earthrealm. Now, it’s generally difficult for action movies like these to receive high scores from critics, but the hope is that Mortal Kombat 2 will get enough positive word-of-mouth to ensure that more films in the franchise will be made.
What is Mortal Kombat 2’s Rotten Tomatoes rating expected to be?
Mortal Kombat 2 is expected to earn a 53% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on a bet on Kalshi (as of April 30). The threshold for a movie being called Fresh instead of Rotten on the site is 60%, so it looks like the film will need to fight for a Fresh RT score.
The full results of the prediction market show that Mortal Kombat 2 is projected to get a middle-of-the-road RT score from reviewers:
- Above 30 (Rotten Tomatoes rating) – 99%
- Above 35 – 89%
- Above 40 – 83%
- Above 45 – 76%
- Above 50 – 59%
- Above 55 – 43%
- Above 60 – 29%
- Above 65 – 15%
- Above 70 – 11%
- Above 80 – 1%
- Above 85 – Less than 1%
- Above 90 – Negligible
- Above 95 – Less than 1%
Looking at the full history of the bet, the forecasted RT score for the film has fluctuated from around 40% to 57% since April 11. The review embargo for the sequel is reportedly May 6 (that’s only two days before the movie’s release), according to @EmbargoLiftsFor on X (formerly Twitter), but the exact hour when reviews will drop is unknown.
In good news, early reactions from audiences who have seen Mortal Kombat 2 at select advance screenings have said that the filmmakers, which include director Simon McQuoid and writer Jeremy Slater, have addressed fan feedback from 2021’s Mortal Kombat. They say the movie has scrapped the Arcana idea from the original movie and has more fully embraced its video game origins, with one reaction saying that it’s “the movie we should’ve gotten the first time.” They singled out the solid fight choreography for Kung Lao and praised the performances for Karl Urban and John Lawson who returns as the mercenary Kano.
Box office predictions for Mortal Kombat 2 have it earning somewhere between $40 million and $50 million in its domestic start and in the range of $80 million to $109 million through its entire run in the US and Canada, according to BoxOfficeTheory. The site says the film “is enjoying healthy early buzz among core audiences (men of all ages).” A separate report from BoxOffice Pro has a similar range for the sequel from $45 million to $55 million for its domestic opener.
These projections are strong compared to the original 2021 film, which only made $23 million in its domestic opening weekend. While it earned a total of $84 million worldwide, its production budget was $55 million, which means that it needed to make around $138 million to break even. That said, the film was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which is why it eventually found a home on HBO Max. The streaming numbers the movie had on the platform were high enough to convince producers to make this sequel.
It should be noted that Mortal Kombat 2 has a higher benchmark to clear, since its budget is slightly higher at $68 million and would thus need to earn $170 million worldwide to be profitable. But if these box office projections hold, this is a barrier that the film should easily break.
