Street Fighter opens with a $4M preview haul — but critics call it a jumbled tonal mess. A24’s Holmes doc is stealing the spotlight with a perfect score.
Street Fighter opens with a thud — and a $4 million preview haul. The Paramount Pictures adaptation of the iconic Capcom game, directed by Kitao Sakurai and starring Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, and Callina Liang, launched in over 3,500 North American theaters Thursday night, pulling in $4 million from early showings.
That’s a solid start for a film with an $82 million production budget, but the real story isn’t just the numbers, it’s what they’re up against. And what they’re not doing right. The movie’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score sits at 45 percent, with The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck calling it a ‘jumbled tonal mess’ that’s ‘only sporadically entertaining.’ Audience approval? 82.
So people are watching. But are they enjoying it? Not quite. The film’s attempt to translate the arcade fighter’s high-octane energy into a live-action feature feels like a missed connection.
No one’s saying it’s bad. Just hollow. Like a punch without follow-through. Meanwhile, A24’s You Can See Everything, the Elizabeth Holmes doc about Theranos, is stealing the spotlight.
It earned $1.7 million from previews across 855 theaters, and has a perfect 100 percent critics score. Angie Han called it ‘smart, funny and full of surprises.’ That’s not just a win for the documentary world. It’s a reminder: audiences aren’t just here for spectacle. They want substance.
Even Sense and Sensibility, Georgia Oakley’s new take on Jane Austen’s classic, is holding its own with $1.1 million in previews. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles carry the emotional weight of the Dashwood sisters, though critics note it’s still living in Ang Lee’s long shadow. And then there’s Whalefall. A $60 million thriller about a scuba diver swallowed by a sperm whale.
It pulled $900,000 from previews, with Focus Features projecting a $10–12 million opening. David Rooney wasn’t impressed: ‘just not batshit crazy enough to be much fun.’ Which might be the most damning thing you can say about a movie where someone gets eaten by a whale. Street Fighter may have landed in theaters, but it’s already lost the fight for attention.
The real question now: will it hold on past weekend one?
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.