The sequel ‘Mortal Kombat 2’ arrived with a surefire fatality in the trailer world. Released on Thursday, July 17th, the red band trailer for the new film in the franchise based on Midway’s classic game racked up an impressive 106.8 million global views in its first 24 hours—a new all-time record for an R-rated trailer.
The video was released simultaneously in 68 countries and translated into 47 languages, reflecting the worldwide appetite for the franchise.
The first film adaptation, directed by Simon McQuoid, released in 2021, also had a historic performance: the trailer surpassed 116 million views in one week. Despite premiering simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, the film opened with $23.3 million—practically matching the box office gross of the 1995 original, which grossed $23.2 million.
Now, exclusively in theaters, expectations are even higher. The success of ‘Dune’ has been used as a benchmark, as noted by Deadline. Its 2021 hybrid debut grossed $41 million, but ‘Dune: Part Two,’ released exclusively in theaters, more than doubled that figure, with a $82.5 million debut.
‘Mortal Kombat 2’ has already surpassed other successful red-band trailers, such as James Gunn’s ‘The Suicide Squad’ ($8.5 million), ‘Deadpool 2’ ($2 million), and 2021’s ‘Mortal Kombat’ itself ($47 million in the first 24 hours).
On livestreams alone, the trailer garnered 2.7 million global streams across channels such as Mortal Kombat Movie, Mortal Kombat Games, Warner Bros. (US, UK, Canada), IGN, IMAX, and platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, and X (formerly Twitter).
Audiences reacted enthusiastically. Karl Urban’s performance as Johnny Cage was widely celebrated, along with appearances by iconic characters and classic lines from the franchise—especially Scorpion’s cry of “Get over here!”, which continues to delight fans.
In an additional promotional coup, Warner Bros. also released a fake trailer for a supposed film starring Cage, called Uncaged Fury, which reached 22.2 million views in 24 hours—all organically, according to the studio.
In the plot of ‘Mortal Kombat 2,’ Earth’s champions join forces with Johnny Cage to face the brutal emperor Shao Kahn in a definitive, blood-soaked, no-holds-barred battle to save Earthrealm from destruction.
Warner Bros. recently released a series of individual posters. The artwork highlights Kano (Josh Lawson), Cole Young (Lewis Tan), Kung Lao (Max Huang), Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford), Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada), Shang Tsung (Chin Han), Baraka, Jax (Mehcad Brooks), Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee), Sindel (Ana Thu Nguyen), Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), Bi-Han (Joe Taslim), Raiden (Tadanobu Asano), Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), Johnny Cage (Karl Urban) and Jade (Tati Gabrielle).
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