When a movie doesn't do well at the box office, as Street Fighter has not, the easiest response is: “Well, it's because it's bad.” Think, though, about how many “bad” movies have done well at the box office? Inversely, how many “good” movies have failed to reach their box office potential, only to become cult classics later? Street Fighter seems to be the latest misfire. Despite having a strong start, it ended up having a 72% drop in its second week (ouch!). Not only that, but it looks to have completely stalled since then.
Personally, I thought the movie was flawed but fun, but for a movie that had a production budget of around $82 million to only make a little over $93 million worldwide in theaters (per Box Office Mojo), well…that's pretty bad. Here's why I'm not surprised.
I Thought The Trailers Looked Great, But A Lot Of The Internet Seemed To Feel Otherwise
Now, $93 million on an $82 million budget might not seem that bad, but when you factor in that the $92 million has to be shared with theaters every week just to keep the film IN theaters (how much varies per country), well, gosh. That $93 million doesn’t seem so much now, does it?
You also have to factor in what Paramount presumably spent on marketing and promotion, because a movie typically needs to make about 2.5 times its budget to actually be profitable, which would mean that Street Fighter needs to be making more like $200 million to be profitable, and it hasn’t made even half that yet. So again, ouch.
This makes sense to me, because even though I thought the movie looked like everything I could have wanted out of a Street Fighter movie, the internet response was mixed at best when it came to the trailers. I saw several people online saying that the movie looked too goofy, or that they didn’t like the cast. On the other hand, I heard people (such as myself) saying that the movie SHOULD look goofy, as the games don’t really take themselves THAT seriously. So, in the end, a mixed reception to a trailer usually doesn’t bode well at the box office, especially when it’s so easy to just wait for movies to come home to streaming.
Also, Once It Came Out, Word Of Mouth Was Mixed As Well
I mean, I saw the film, and do you know what I told most people who hadn’t seen it yet? I said, “It was okay.” That said, most of the people I saw on the internet talking about the film gave it a much worse reception, with some people saying, “Don’t waste your money,” and others saying that “It was horrible!”
Mind you, some of these reviews come from FANS. In fact, one of my favorite YouTubers, Maximilian Dood (who actually appears in a cameo), said that he mostly liked it, but there were some issues he had when it came to the tone. So, even somebody who’s actually in the film didn’t give it the greatest review in the world.
Honestly, if I hadn’t seen it on opening weekend, I probably would have held off seeing it, too, given the lukewarm response. There’s also one other big issue.
Being So Close To Resident Evil Didn't Help Its Case
Another major issue that may seem unrelated is that Resident Evil was so widely loved by audiences. One might say, well, one is based on a horror game, and another is based on a fighting game, but that’s not really the issue here. It’s the fact that it’s another video game movie.
Because you can just look at the scores on Rotten Tomatoes, and that tells you all you need to know. Resident Evil is still sitting at 96% from critics, and 90% from fans. Inversely, Street Fighter is at 41% from critics, and 78% from fans.
One might say, “Scores don’t matter,” but yes, they do when it comes to casuals. The fans likely already saw Street Fighter, but the broader audience might see that 41% and say, “Naw, I’m good.” So, yeah. Street Fighter. What could have been.
