It’s no surprise by now that the FGC has mixed feelings about the Street Fighter movie.
But I think the sequel that was clearly set up at the end of the movie is definitely going to happen, whether we liked this movie or not. Because it made a lotta money.
There is a reason Hollywood studios keep giving us sequels, remakes, adaptations, spin-offs and the same IPs over and over and over. No matter how much we complain that the Minions aren’t funny, we’re sick of Marvel zingers and video game movies are painful, we apparently still go watch them.
Despite Street Fighter having corny dialogue, a disjointed plot and inaccurate character portrayals, the FGC showed up. The film saw $51.1 million at the global worldwide opening, with $31 million of that coming from the United States. This is lower than the expected $70 million, but it’s well on its way to having enough of a profit margin off the $82 million production cost that it’s considered a success.
Even though X is full of fans dunking on the film, it’s a financial success. Looks like all that over-the-top marketing paid off.
And don’t blame me, I have an AMC A-List membership (and annual popcorn pass), so I saw it for “free.”
But yes, it was the Street Fighter fans who made the movie a success.
Critically annihilated, fan-approved: 1-1 score
On Rotten Tomatoes, Street Fighter has a 42% critic score but a 72% score with general audiences.
“The punishing two-hour runtime ends in a flagrant call for a sequel, making the whole affair feel even more unfinished than it already was,” ranted RogerEbert, giving it a 1.5 stars.
Added Film Feeder: “It’s a mind-numbingly stupid, narratively empty, and frankly rather dull video game movie that, just like in that 4 Non Blondes song, will leave you asking with all sincerity, ‘What’s going on?'”
But the fans will tell you to turn your brain off. Just laugh a little. If you don’t expect anything quality or coherent, you can just watch your favorite characters punch each other! Jeez, have a little fun and stop complaining! Chun-Li is hot!
This is the same kinda sentiment we’ve seen with Marvel’s nonstop superhero films before fatigue finally set in. This is the same thing people say about animated films, claiming kid movies don’t have to be good. Sure, Street Fighter is a fun watch if you don’t have any standards for filmmaking. But now we’re going to just get a ton more low-effort video game movies. They can clearly see that fans will pay for it even if they don’t even provide a coherent plot. Hey, it has 90s references, who cares!
At the end of the day, some fans had fun, some were left frustrated, and they both paid. And now a sequel is most definitely gonna happen, whether you like it or not.
Maybe Chun-Li will actually do something in that one.
