‘Mortal Kombat II’, ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ $40M-$42M Apiece

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SATURDAY AM: It’s still a close call between New Line’s Mortal Kombat II, and 20th Century Studios’ second weekend of The Devil Wears Prada 2 with $40M-$42M apiece. Today will provide clarity, but Mother’s Day Sunday will provide resolution and its ultimate swing factor as to who will win. Also bound for a boost is Lionsgate’s Michael with $35M (maybe more).

It’s the most suspenseful Mother’s Day weekend in memory and the industry should learn from this: Make more female skewing movies for this weekend. Disney knows to never leave Father’s Day weekend bare, and typically has a Pixar movie booked on that weekend. The entire weekend is shaping up to do $161M, which is up 92% over last year. While other distributors have attempted with female fare in the past (i.e. 2016’s Jennifer Aniston-Julia Roberts-Kate Hudson comedy Mother’s Day), this weekend is a perfect storm of female films with Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft at 81% ($8M opening), Sheep Detectives at 56% female ($14.9M opening), Devil Wears Prada 2 at 76% and Michael.

Note, it’s not the highest grossing Mother’s Day weekend at the B.O. for quite often in the past, a big Marvel movie would often coincide with the holiday weekend. Post Covid, this is the second-highest grossing Mother’s Day weekend at the B.O. behind 2022 ($222.3M for all pics) when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness kicked off summer.

Box office sources are estimating that Devil Wears Prada 2 will see a 10-15% spike on Sunday over Saturday, Sheep Detectives could be as high as +30% over those two days, with Michael potentially dipping -5%. Phenomenal holds for the day.

New Line’s Mortal Kombat II led Friday with $17M. An additional $8.9M has been grossed from 30,000 screens abroad for a current running global cume of $25.9M. CinemaScore is a B, which is lower than the previous 2021’s installment’s B+. However, Screen Engine/Comscore’s PostTrak definite recommend is quite high at 72%. Nonetheless, a solid start for the $80M production. Guy leaning as expected at 75%, with 18-34 repping 44% of the audience. The 25-34 demo were the biggest at 30%. Strong turnout from Latino and Hispanic moviegoers at 29% and a great reach overall in diversity demos with Caucasian 27%, Black 26% and 10% Asian American.

Imax and PLFs are delivering close to half the weekend opening for Mortal Kombat II, which is playing best in the South Central and West where 43% of the gross is coming from versus 39% for all other titles. AMC Burbank in LA is the top grossing venue for the sequel with close to $59K. The question is how front-loaded Mortal Kombat II is.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Sheep Detectives received an A- CinemaScore with a great 75% definite recommend on PostTrak. Women over 25 showed up at 42%, men over 25 at 35%, women under 25 at 14%, and men under 25 at 10%. Kids under 12 gave it 90% positive with a 60% must-see-right-away. Given that it’s a family film, the Kyle Balda-directed movie will certainly see business today in addition to tomorrow. The pic is playing best in the Midwest and Mountain regions where 20% of the B.O. is coming from versus 16% for all other titles in the marketplace. AMC Burbank is the top grossing location for the Hugh Jackman family comedy with just over $11K.

Paramount’s $20M acquisition with Interscope of Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft is the lower of the newcomers despite owning the only solid A CinemaScore for the weekend. Those who showed up loved it with an enormous 88% definite recommend. Note, this concert film was never expected to be Taylor Swift (Eilish is still young in her career at 24 years old versus Swift at 36), this is the first time that Eilish has teamed with a major studio on a concert movie. Her previous concert film, 2023’s Live at the 02, received a limited arthouse release through Trafalgar with $1.3M at 600 theaters. Eras Tour benefited by being adjacent to the actual live Swift tour; that fueled business at the box office. Hit Me Hard & Soft began in Sept 2024 and wrapped in November 2025. Hit Me Hard & Soft was originally dated for March 20, but delayed due to Cameron perfecting the tech. For what this movie is, it truly needed even more Imax and PLF screens, but that’s a hard get during summer primetime. The mix of PLFs here are contributing 32% of the pic’s weekend, with 3D driving 57%. Not to mention, this movie couldn’t be delayed any further to a time on the calendar when PLFs are an easier get (late August, some dates in the early fall). What’s on screen here in the James Cameron and Eilish 3D pic was shot over four days during July in the Co-op Live Arena, UK’s largest music venue, in Manchester, England. The entire Hit Me Hard & Soft tour grossed an estimated $226.1M with the pic’s opening weekend here akin to what Eilish actually did over three nights at NYC’s Madison Square (Oct. 16-18, 2024) which was $9.5M. Mountain and Western regions are where the business is with AMC Burbank the top grossing location with just over $29K. Like all the other female-skewing movies this weekend, it’s wait-and-see mode for this concert film. And by the way, concert films are a cottage industry and made to be theatrical evergreens which are re-released, i.e. the Talking Heads’ 1984 epic Stop Making Sense.

Saturday AM estimates:

FRIDAY PM UPDATE: The moms and their daughters will decide who reigns supreme at this weekend’s box office with 20th Century Studios’ heavily female-skewing The Devil Wears Prada 2 and the dude-dominant New Line/Atomic Monster/Broken Road/Fireside Films sequel Mortal Kombat II vying for No. 1 with around $40M-$42M apiece.

For Devil Wears Prada 2, that’s a 45%-48% decline, which is fantastic and not far from the -46% hold the 2006 original movie had. We already told you that globally, the sequel is surpassing the original film’s $326M-plus reported global gross. Ten-day domestic by Sunday for Prada 2 is $143.8M on the high end.

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Mother’s Day Sunday isn’t expected to be big just for Devil Wears Prada 2 but also The Sheep Detectives, Michael and Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D).

New Line’s $80M Mortal Kombat II is seeing a Friday and previews of $17.5M at 3,503 theaters, with Devil Wears Prada 2 eyeing $10M-$11M at 4,200. Kombat II has all the premium formats.

Lionsgate’s Michael remains mutliplatinum with a third weekend around $35M at 3,550 theaters after a third Friday of $9M.

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Fourth place goes to Amazon MGM Studios’ Hugh Jackman comedy, The Sheep Detectives, with $3.7M today including previews, and $13.6M over three days at 3,457 theaters.

FRIDAY AM: New Line’s Mortal Kombat II stepped into the ring Thursday night and rang up $5.2M in previews, which isn’t that far from the amount the studio clocked a year ago in previews from Final Destination Bloodlines ($5.5M). That highly anticipated horror film opened to $51.6M.

And fifth is Paramount and Interscope’s $20M acquisition, Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard & Soft at 2,613 theaters with $4.2M Friday/previews and a 3-day of $7.5M.

All of Mortal Kombat II‘s cash is from Thursday. Showtimes began at 3 p.m.

Forecasts for the R-rated Mortal Kombat II came down into the $40Ms, and the question remains whether the second weekend of The Devil Wears Prada 2 will beat it, with that sequel expected to get a big boost from Mother’s Day. Lionsgate’s Michael is expected to bring in a female crowd on Sunday as well. Disney has pushed out extra spots this week for Devil Wears Prada 2 targeting Mother’s Day moviegoers.

Devil Wears Prada 2 ended the week with $101.8M, with the movie already past $300M worldwide.

Still, a $40M+ start for the Simon McQuoid-directed sequel based on the Midway video game is a great start for Mortal Kombat II, considering the previous 2021 installment saw its opening and grosses siphoned from a Covid-era theatrical day-and-date release on HBO Max with $23.3M. That movie finaled at $42.3M domestic, and the opening for its sequel could outstrip that entire gross alone.

Paramount’s Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D) brought in $2.2M in overall previews including Thursday night and April 29 early-access shows at 2,350 locations. The pic directed by Eilish and James Cameron is expected to bring in $6M-$9M.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Sheep Detectives held previews Thursday night starting at 2 p.m. as well as earlier previews. All in, it was $1M. The pic is expected to open to around $12M.

Rest of the week:

1. The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th) 4,150 theaters, Wk $101.8M/Wk 1

2. Michael (LG) 3,955 theaters, Wk $74.1M (-43%), Total $203.9M/Wk 2

3. Project Hail Mary (AMZ) 3,017 theaters, Wk $11.9M (-32%), Total $321.7M/Wk 7

4. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (Uni) 3,419 theaters, Wk $14.9M (-41%), Total $405.5M/Wk 5

5. Hokum (Neon) 1,885 theaters, Wk $9.1M/Wk 1