New Line’s Mortal Kombat II hit tracking late last week for what’s shaping up to be a domestic opening in the $40M-$50M range when it opens on May 8.

The R-rated feature take of the Midway game is the third in a string of highly anticipated late spring/early summer pics expected to juice the box office, beginning with Lionsgate’s Michael Michael Jackson biopic this Friday which is eyeing a $65M-$70M debut, best ever for a movie about a recording artist. This will be followed by 20th Century Studios/Disney’s The Devil Wears Prada 2 which is eyeing around a $68M start. There’s upside for everything given the positive momentum we are expected to be on.

Currently, the Simon McQuoid directed Mortal Kombat 2 is hot with men under/over 25 with a first choice in the demo that’s higher than Scream 7 ($63.6M), New Line’s Final Destination: Bloodlines from last May ($51.6M opening), Predator: Badlands ($40M), and Bad Boys: Ride or Die ($56.6M)

Previously, Warner Bros was going to release Mortal Kombat II back on Oct. 24, however, given its immense heat they moved it to a summer release date. When the first red band trailer was dropped back in July, WaveMetrix data reported that it clocked 106.8M global views in its first 24 hours from 68 countries and 47 languages– the best ever for a red-band trailer. There was positivity over Karl Urban’s casting as martial artist Johnny Cage. In meta fashion at the time, New Line and Warner Bros also dropped a faux Uncaged Fury trailer for a movie starring Urban’s Cage which pulled in 22.2M views in 24 hours.

Mortal Kombat II follows the champion fighters from the videogames as they’re joined by Cage. They’re pitted against one another in the ultimate, no-holds barred, gory battle to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn who threatens the very existence of the Earthrealm and its defenders.

The previous installment from McQuoid went day-and-date theatrical-HBO Max as part of Warner Bros Covid project popcorn. It did well with an opening of $23.2M despite being available in the home. To date, the three Mortal Kombat movies from New Line have grossed $257.8M worldwide.