If you were hoping to see Mortal Kombat soon, you’ll have to postpone those plans by a week.
Warner Bros has delayed the reboot of Mortal Kombat‘s translation to film, a literal day before another of their blockbuster April movies was set to drop. Variety is reporting that the decision making is largely due to a better than expected recovery for films despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in parts of the world (particularly the United States), and that the extra week will stop Mortal Kombat from cannibalising any potential interest in Godzilla vs. Kong.
The new release date for Mortal Kombat is April 22 in Australia, a day before its broader release worldwide.
The delay is a good sign, at least as far as Warner Bros is concerned. Godzilla vs. Kong has already made $159 million ($US121 million) internationally, with $8.26 million of that coming from Australia alone. It’s a staggeringly good result for Australia when you consider Godzilla vs Kong. made almost the same amount of money here as it did in Russia, despite Australia having a third of the opening weekend cinemas. China, obviously, generated the lionshare of the cash with $91 million ($US69.2 million) from the opening weekend, but Warner Bros are naturally factoring in that the movie will be an enormous success in the U.S. and throughout Western Europe as a result.
The other benefit to delaying Mortal Kombat‘s release, according to Variety, is a loosening of cinema restrictions in some territories. Indoor capacity in Los Angeles is expected to be expanded to 200 people per session this week, which is a fairly huge deal given LA is one of the United States’ biggest movie markets. And a couple of wins for Warner Bros could also be a much needed lifeline for the cinema business internationally, although in Australia and New Zealand, cinemas have been getting by with cult classics and retro screenings across most of 2020. (This includes 4K screenings of Akira, which is screening at Sydney’s Ritz Cinema next week if you’re after a bit of remastered TETSUOOOOOOOOOOOO.)
As for Mortal Kombat, the extra week should also give you plenty of time to check out our lengthy chat with the cast and crew here.
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