Street Fighter movie opens at #1 with $51M worldwide, critics split

The Street Fighter movie opened at number one worldwide with $51.1 million total, pulling in $31 million domestic from 3,575 theaters and another $20.1 million from 65 international markets. It's a solid opening, but still short of the $70 million the studio was reportedly expecting before release.

Directed by Kitao Sakurai, the movie stars Andrew Koji as Ryu and Noah Centineo as Ken Masters. Legendary and Capcom co-financed the $82 million production, with Paramount handling distribution.

Reviews are split. Critics gave it a 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were kinder with a 79% score. Moviegoers handed it a B- CinemaScore, which is lukewarm at best for a franchise fans have been waiting decades to see done right on the big screen.

Refresher: Street Fighter's rough history on screen

Street Fighter has been trying to crack Hollywood since the Jean-Claude Van Damme disaster in 1994. That one was a campy mess that turned M. Bison into a dictator and Guile into the hero for some reason. The animated movie that same year was better, but live-action has been cursed ever since. This is the franchise's latest attempt to finally deliver a proper adaptation of the arcade legend that ate our quarters in the 90s.

Documentary breaks records in second place

Meanwhile, You Can See Everything opened to $15 million from 855 theaters, landing in second place at the domestic box office. The documentary, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, focuses on Elizabeth Holmes and was produced by A24 for roughly $7 million. It premiered as a surprise at the Telluride Film Festival and had more than 2,000 sold-out screenings.

It's the largest documentary opening since One Direction: This is Us in 2013 if you count concert films, or since Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004 if you don't. Either way, it's a monster debut for a doc.

Netflix reports box office numbers for the first time

La Bola Negra earned approximately $277,500 from four screens in New York and Los Angeles. The bigger story: Netflix actually reported the numbers, marking the first time the streaming giant has publicly shared theatrical grosses. That's a shift worth watching.

Whalefall opens soft

Whalefall opened to $8 million domestic from 3,065 locations and $17.5 million globally. The $60 million production stars Austin Abrams and landed in a distant third place behind Street Fighter and the Holmes documentary.

The Radazoid take

For those of us who dumped rolls of quarters into Street Fighter II at the arcade, this is another letdown. The 90s Van Damme version was a joke, and every attempt since has failed to capture what made the game great: the characters, the moves, the tournament stakes. A 42% critics score and a B- CinemaScore say this one didn't crack the code either, even if audiences were slightly more forgiving than the pros.

The real surprise is the Elizabeth Holmes doc pulling $15 million. Documentaries don't usually do that kind of business, and it shows there's still an appetite for stories that aren't sequels or reboots. As for Street Fighter, it's frustrating. The game is right there. Just adapt it. Until someone does, we'll keep getting expensive misfires that open big and fade fast.