Next weekend, Mortal Kombat II opens in theaters everywhere, and is expected to hit a franchise record with its opening weekend. It wouldn’t be the first time that a Mortal Kombat movie has overperformed (or, in the words of the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation poster, “destroy[ed] all expectations”). The previous installment, 2021’s Mortal Kombat, emerged in the early days of movie theaters being fully reopened after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic with a surprisingly robust opening weekend.