Box Office: 'Mortal Kombat II' Nabs $17M Friday Despite Good Reviews

Fans of the long-running fighting series were undeterred by those dastardly critics who called this video game-based follow-up "fun," "entertaining" and "everything a sequel should be."

In another example of movie critics proving themselves out of touch with regular moviegoers, WB and New Line’s Mortal Kombat II double-jumped to the top of the box office with a terrific $17 million Friday for a likely over/under $42.5 million opening weekend. Even with those diabolical, fun-hating scolds giving this R-rated, ultraviolent video game-based sequel a 65% fresh (and 5.7/10) on Rotten Tomatoes, thus making it one of the best-reviewed video game movies ever, the fans ignored the snobs and showed up anyway. Mortal Kombat II’s initial post-embargo Rotten Tomatoes scores were, at their peak, a whopping 77% (and 6/10), making it the third-best reviewed button-masher adaptation behind Werewolves Within and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It was then that producer and longtime industry vet Todd Garner took issue (in a since-deleted and mea culpa-ed “X” post) with critics who didn’t like the movie, arguing that their ignorance of the game’s extensive deep-dive lore invalidated their opinions.