Weekend Box Office: Street Fighter Delivers a Knockout
Meanwhile, the Elizabeth Holmes doc You Can See Everything racks up big numbers to come in second.
A video game adaptation and a documentary about a fraudulent businesswoman walk into a theater. That’s not the setup for a joke, and neither are the numbers on the film that wasn’t No. 1 this weekend. Yes, the Capcom faithful showed up for their fighters, much more than those seeking Jane Austen or those trapped in the stomach of a whale. If you have the time, you can certainly see everything, but there is clearly one film that everyone is talking about right now.
King of the Crop: Street Fighter Delivers a Knockout
People may forget that Street Fighter actually beat Mortal Kombat to the punch, as a video game (SF debuted in 1987 while MK landed in 1992) as well as to cinema. 1995’s Mortal Kombat was already enticing players with its music-based teaser a full year in advance, but the Jean-Claude Van Damme film hit theaters first in time for Christmas 1994. It opened to just $6.6 million and finished with $33.4 million domestic and just under $100 million worldwide. Mortal Kombat did much better in North America ($70.4 million) but not a whole lot better worldwide ($122.1 million).
While many have forgotten Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li back in 2009 ($8.7 million total gross), the new reboot of Street Fighter opened to $31 million. Not quite in the same league as Mortal Kombat II, which opened earlier this year ($38.5 million). Maybe more concerning is the expediency at which the latter then floundered, just barely doubling its opening. Does the same fate await this one? The Street Fighter films haven’t exactly been bastions of critical support, with the 1994 film earning a 20% on the Tomatometer and Chun-Li sporting a woeful 3%. This one at least is slightly better, currently at 42%, but that is hardly encouraging, and with the latest from DC hoping to draw much of this very same crowd this weekend, Street Fighter could be facing a quick fall, hoping to end up in the $65-75 million range, which isn’t promising for the $100+ million production. Globally it is just over $51 million.
Tales of the Top 10: You Can See Everything Scores Big, Other Mommy Plummets
Back in 2004, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 opened to over $23 million in just 868 theaters. (That’s an historic number that would be beaten by Borat and Hannah Montana, but more on that next week.) Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything just opened to $15 million in 855 theaters. This isn’t a concert film, but a full-on documentary, and taking that into account, it is the second-best opening for a film of its type after Fahrenheit. A24’s release of Fielder’s exploration of his time with Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes before she went to jail bested Disney’s nature docs Chimpanzee ($10.6 million) and Earth ($8.8 million), as well as this year’s Melania ($7.1 million). This is also the fourth-best opening for A24 behind only Backrooms ($81.4 million), Civil War ($25.5 million), and Primetime ($18.8 million) and just ahead of The Drama ($14.3 million). That’s four of their five best openings ever just this year. (Oppenheim’s Primetime made $1.6 million this weekend to bring its total to $45.3 million and become A24’s ninth-highest domestic grosser ever.) To put a button on this accomplishment, though, both this film and Dhurandhar: The Revenge are the only films this year to open in fewer than 1,000 theaters and gross $10+ million since Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain in 2013, also a concert, as opposed to a foreign film or traditional documentary.
Other Mommy finished its second weekend having one of the biggest drops for a new film opening in 3,000+ theaters. There was Supergirl (-76.8%), Scary Movie (-73.9%), Scream 7 (-73.3%), 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (-72.6%), The Bride! (-70.4%) and The Mandalorian and Grogu (-70.1%). Now there is Other Mommy with its own 70% fall down to $8.3 million. That still adds up to $44.8 million in 10 days (nearly $79 million worldwide) and is already a success for Universal and Blumhouse. That is close to where 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer and Saw V were after 10 days, with each finishing between $56-66 million. Other Mommy is looking at the lower end of that. $60 million would put it among 18 other October horror films to hit that mark. Only 13 of them crossed $70 million, including the highest-grossing non-sequel/reboot/spinoff/video game adaptation horror film to be released in this month. OK, a slight reach, but 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer ($72.5 million) is at the top of that list when we eliminate Five Nights At Freddy’s. The Devil’s Advocate would be next with $60.9 million. Other Mommy hopes to pass Saw V ($56.7 million), Dracula Untold ($56.4 million), and Happy Death Day ($55.6 million) to settle pretty high on that list.
In a perfect world, a film like Whalefall, adapted from the 2023 novel by Daniel Kraus, would just be making all the money based on concept alone. Outside of Pinocchio and the story of Jonah, can you say you have ever seen or heard anything like this? Starring Resident Evil’s Austin Abrams as the guy trapped inside the body of a whale, the 20th Century Studios release of Brian Duffield’s adaptation opened to $8 million domestically and $17.5 million globally. Maybe if it was based on a video game it would have done better, but this should have been opening to Gravity and The Martian money. Instead, it did roughly what the Steven Seagal/Keenan Ivory Wayans film The Glimmer Man did back in 1996. Whalefall is at 71% on the Tomatometer, with a B from Cinemascore. If you are not going out to see this in theaters, at the very least go check out Duffield’s film Spontaneous, which is one of the best films released during the pandemic. It is available on Paramount+ and Fubo right now.
Back in 1995, Sony opened Ang Lee’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility into just 70 theaters, where it began with a modest $721,341 but went on to gross over $43 million through its successful awards run, including a win for Emma Thompson’s screenplay. Blue Jean director Georgia Oakley’s new adaptation opened to $7.2 million in 2,545 theaters. Focus’ 2005 release of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley made $7.02 million when it expanded to 1,299 theaters in its third weekend and finished its run with $38.4 million. (Plus, it had a nice $6.1 million haul for its 20th Anniversary re-release last year.) Focus tried Austen again in 2020 with Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma, which was platformed in five theaters but expanded to make over $10 million just before the pandemic. We’ll see if the new S&S will have the same kind of word-of-mouth as the other adaptations, but it is probably going to come in somewhere below the $25 million production budget on the domestic side. It has added another $8.1 million worldwide to date.
Speaking of adaptations, I’m not sure if the Colleen Hooverse is really pulling in new fans. The old ones certainly showed up on opening weekend, but it took until weekend three for Verity to double up that start. Michael Showalter’s adaptation took in $6.2 million in its third weekend to put its total at $66 million. The film has dropped fast in subsequent weeks but still looks to finish between $75-80 million on the domestic side. Globally the film is over $145 million and is a solid hit for Amazon/MGM.
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is about a week away from surpassing last year’s domestic grosses for Weapons ($151.5 million). Another $5.5 million in its sixth weekend has the film at $148.5 million, which is the ninth-highest gross for a September release ever, passing Hotel Transylvania ($148.3 million). Resident Evil is already a full $11 million ahead of where that film was in weekend six, and in continuing to outgross that film, it has a legitimate shot at hitting $160 million, even if this could be its last weekend in the top 10. Globally the film has now surpassed $340 million and is among the top 15 highest-grossing horror films ever.
Dad dollars are still in effect for the Brad Pitt-led Heart of the Beast. The David Ayer film pulled in $4.8 million in its fourth weekend. That brings its domestic total to over $58 million. Word-of-mouth has clearly been working, as the film will ultimately triple its opening weekend. But it’s the $85 million production budget that still hasn’t been satisfied, even with a global haul over $150 million. Warner Bros.’ Digger, meanwhile, made just $920,000 in its third weekend to get over $17 million domestic and only $41+ million globally.
Rounding out the top 10 this week, let’s note that the first Jailer film did not get a domestic release, but its sequel, the aptly titled Jailer 2, did, and it grossed $3.1 million over the weekend and has made $5.2 million to date. Finally, Forgotten Island may be the only animated game in town currently, but families just never got around to discovering it. In its fourth weekend it made only $2.2 million to bring its total to $35.1 million. As we did last week, we look at the comparable totals of The Angry Birds Movie 2 ($1.7 million, $36.3 million) and Paw Patrol: The Movie ($2.3 million, $34.7 million) after their fourth weekends. That should still keep Forgotten on pace to pass $40 million, but what a disappointment, especially with just another $25 million internationally.
Beyond the Top 10: Ken Russell’s The Devils Surprises, The Social Reckoning Drops
Another pretty crazy number this weekend is seeing Ken Russell’s The Devils in 350 theaters across the country. The 4K restoration with an NC-17 rating is the first release from Warner Bros. Clockwork, and it made and estimated $1.64 million, a pretty incredible $46,857 per-theater average. Not quite in the top 10 of 2026, but close.
People have had enough of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, at least in theaters, as Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning fell to $1.5 million in its second weekend. Now standing with $8.2 million, it is among the lowest-grossing films this year based on a true story to open in over 2,000 theaters, ahead of only The Uprising ($6.5 million) and The Brink of War ($5 million). While not a true story, Roadside’s spider horror Crawlers made just $468,457 in 1,037 theaters.
Netflix must have had some confidence in their limited release of La Bola Negra this weekend because they actually reported the box office numbers. Four theaters. $277,500. A $69,375 per-theater average. That is the fourth-best of 2026 behind The Moment ($106,985), The History of Concrete ($90,892), and Spider-Man: Brand New Day ($80,252). Welcome to the numbers game, Netflix. The water is warm.
In other limited news, Amazon/MGM’s expanded Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother into 824 theaters this weekend, where it grossed $1.2 million. Its total now stands at $2.2 million. Alex Gibney’s Musk is not doing Elizabeth Holmes numbers. Neon expanded the four-hour doc into 472 theaters this weekend, where it grossed an estimated $306,702. That brings its cumulative total to $394,912. Neon also got Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord into 13 theaters, where it made $124,000, and the documentary Once Upon a Time In Harlem made $68,307 in two theaters. Chris Rock’s Misty Green, released by A24, expanded into 125 theaters but grossed just $40,000.
On The Vine: Clayface Leads an Eclectic Variety of Halloween Week Options
The DC Gunnverse continues next week with their low-budget horror entry Clayface. The newest entry in the Laika Universe, Wildwood, arrives in theaters from Fathom Entertainment. Amazon/MGM is putting out Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G: Who Iz I? for just one week. Sony has Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun with Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams. Helen Mirren is author Patricia Highsmith in A Talent for Murder from Bleecker Street. Then, in limited release, look for John Turturro in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York from Sony Classics and Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgaard in Wicker from Black Bear. See all the upcoming releases here.
Full List of Box Office Results: October 16-18
- Street Fighter – $31.0 million ($31.0 million total)
- You Can See Everything – $15.0 million ($15.0 million total)
- Other Mommy – $8.3 million ($44.8 million total)
- Whalefall – $8.0 million ($8.0 million total)
- Sense and Sensibility – $7.2 million ($7.2 million total)
- Verity – $6.2 million ($66.0 million total)
- Resident Evil – $5.5 million ($148.5 million total)
- Heart of the Beast – $4.8 million ($58.3 million total)
- Jailer 2 – $3.1 million ($5.2 million total)
- Forgotten Island – $2.2 million ($35.1 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Paramount Pictures
