Mortal Kombat (film series)

Mortal Kombat
Official film series logo
Directed byPaul W. S. Anderson (1)
John R. Leonetti (2)
Simon McQuoid (3–4)
Based on
Mortal Kombat
by
Distributed byNew Line Cinema (1–2)
Warner Bros. Pictures (3–4)
Release dates
  • August 18, 1995 (1995-08-18) (1)
  • November 21, 1997 (1997-11-21) (2)
  • April 23, 2021 (2021-04-23) (3)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetTotal (3 films)
$103 million
Box officeTotal (3 films)
$204.2 million

Mortal Kombat is an American series of martial arts fantasy films based on the video game series of the same name.

The first live-action film, Mortal Kombat, was released in 1995 and its sequel, Mortal Kombat Annihilation, was released in 1997. After the two films, game publisher Midway filed for bankruptcy. Warner Bros., having become the parent of New Line Cinema in 2008 (after over a decade of both operating as separate divisions of Time Warner), made a bid to purchase most of Midway's assets, including Mortal Kombat. In June 2009, Kasanoff and Threshold sued in bankruptcy court, arguing that they owned the copyright to many of the characters from the series.

On July 1, 2009, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of most of Midway's assets to Warner Bros. subject to the intellectual property claims of Threshold Entertainment. After years of development hell, a reboot of the series was released in April 2021.