The renowned film company Legendary Entertainment has secured the rights to the iconic fighting game classic “Street Fighter”. – both for cinema adaptations and for TV/streaming series. Together with game manufacturer Capcom, they now want to tackle projects – of course a cinema film is in the foreground, but series are also planned.
In the cinema, ‘Street Fighter’ has not been a resounding success so far. “Street Fighter – The Decisive Battle” (see photo), which appeared in 1994, with Jean-Claude Van Damme and pop star Kylie Minogue, among others, was relatively successful, but was rejected by fans and is more suitable as a trash spectacle. Hardly anyone was interested in the 2009 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li remake, starring Smallville star Kristin Kreuk. It failed at the US box office and there was only one home theater release in Germany. Various animated adaptations and the web series “Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist” were better received, but remained more of a niche production for a small audience.
A big Hollywood player creates “Street Fighter”
However, the “Street Fighter” brand is still popular – it will appear in the summer the game “Street Fighter 6” (more on our sister site GameStar.de). The new “Street Fighter” movie shouldn’t just be a much bigger deal than the most recent adaptations. After all, Legendary Entertainment, one of the most renowned studios in Hollywood right now, is the driving force, especially when it comes to large-scale productions. Legendary made the “Godzilla” films (most recently “Godzilla vs. Kong”) or the two “Dune” adaptations by Denis Villeneuve on behalf of Warner. Legendary is also responsible for the Enola Holmes movies for Netflix.
They also have some experience with video game adaptations. One was involved in “Warcraft” (albeit with numerous other companies), which did not lead to success. On the other hand, things have been better lately with “Pokémon Detective Pikachu”. There they worked directly with the game company – the model that is now also used in “Street Fighter” and is becoming increasingly popular in the industry. The “Super Mario Bros. Movie” which will launch on April 5, 2023 also came about as a close collaboration between a movie studio and the game manufacturer Nintendo.
When a first ‘Street Fighter’ film could actually be seen in the cinemas, it is not yet foreseeable.