Mortal Kombat's R-Rated Reboot Returns To HBO Max In September

Warner Bros.' R-rated Mortal Kombat movie reboot will soon be back on HBO Max.

The martial arts fantasy action/adventure, based on the video game franchise of the same name, returns to the service on Sept. 9. George Miller's Oscar-winning post-apocalyptic 2015 movie Mad Max: Fury Road also begins streaming on the platform that day, with James Wan's latest horror/thriller, Malignant, premiering day and date in theaters and on HBO Max one day later on Sept. 10.

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Mortal Kombat received the same hybrid release as Malignant earlier this year, debuting in U.S. theaters and streaming for a month on HBO Max on April 23. Warner Bros. has used this strategy for all of its films going back to Wonder Woman 1984 in December 2020 and will continue to do so with its remaining movies scheduled for 2021, including Dune and The Matrix: Resurrections. After that, however, the studio plans to resume debuting its films as theatrical exclusives before they hit the home market, starting in 2022.

CBR's Cass Clarke reviewed Mortal Kombat and praised the movie for "honoring the video game series' brutal action and eye-popping fatalities" while also doing a better job of "balancing the screentime between its many leads" than previous live-action adaptations of the Mortal Kombat video games. That said, they noted the film "feels like a well-thought-out fake-out" and criticized it for only offering viewers "a glimpse of the mythos and lore that is begging to be molded." Overall, Mortal Kombat got a mixed reception from critics and holds a 55 percent "Rotten" score on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 5.4/10 after 284 reviews.

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The lukewarm critical response didn't do much to turn people away from the film, which grossed $83.6 million against a $55 million budget at a time when the global box office was in the early stages of recovery post-lockdowns. That said, its real success was on HBO Max, where it racked up a reported 5.5 million views, putting it ahead of the viewership for the rest of Warner Bros.' 2021 slate so far, including The Suicide Squad.

As for the future, Warner Bros. has yet to announce whether it plans to continue Mortal Kombat with a sequel and/or spinoff. In the meantime, the film will remain available for streaming on HBO Max upon its return for the foreseeable future.

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Source: HBO Max