10 Movies That Embarrassed Other Movies Released At The Same Time
3. Mortal Kombat EMBARRASSED Double Dragon & Street Fighter
The mid-90s saw Hollywood turning to video games for some easy profits, resulting in the development of several films based on popular fighting games - namely, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat.
The low-budget Double Dragon came first in November 1994, releasing to near-universal critical disdain and flopping at the box office, failing to recoup even its tiny $7.8 million budget.
The very next month, the considerably more anticipated, Jean-Claude Van Damme-starring Street Fighter was released, which while grossing almost $100 million worldwide was trashed by critics - outside of Raul Julia's superbly campy performance, that is.
The next summer, Paul W. S. Anderson decided to show these movies up with Mortal Kombat, which was both a considerably greater financial success while receiving far more favourable reviews.
This isn't to say that Anderson's film is perfect by any means - reviews were still firmly mixed - but Mortal Kombat successfully translated the style, tone, and atmosphere of the games to the big screen, as Double Dragon and Street Fighter both categorically failed to.
Mortal Kombat ended up falling flat on its face soon enough, though, when 1997's sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation received worse reviews than either of the above, while also flopping at the box office.