When the first footage from the new Street Fighter movie arrived, it seemed to indicate that the latest attempt to bring the fighting game to the big screen would match the madcap energy of the games themselves. After the runaway success this year of other video game movies like Resident Evil and Iron Lung, a Street Fighter movie that brought the series to life in a way that fans recognized seemed like icing on the cake for a great year. With the reviews rolling in, that might change. The good news is they’re better than any other Street Fighter movie; the bad news is they’re not “great.”
Now, the first reviews from Street Fighter have arrived, and unfortunately they continue a bad franchise trend. The original Street Fighter movie from 1994, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, holds a firm 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with 2009’s forgotten adaptation, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, boasting a dismal 3%. Now, 2026’s Street Fighter has arrived, and as of this writing, the film is holding on to a 43% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with 43 total reviews. There’s good news, though: the score not only has risen since it first started being tracked, but mixed reviews on a new Street Fighter movie aren’t the worst thing when accounting for the franchise’s future.
Street Fighter Reviews Are Mixed at Best, But Don’t Count Out Round 2
Though the slew of negative reviews for Street Fighter detail the kind of criticisms one might expect from a video game movie, even they are quick to note that there are flashes of style and fun to be found in the film. Io9‘s review noted that a plot isn’t the point of a movie like Street Fighter, but that even in its bombastic spectacle, “Street Fighter stumbles, distracting from the action with incoherent storytelling.” Even Variety noted that the film starts strong before it “nosedives into nonsense.”
That said, even the positive reviews for Street Fighter can be summarized as damning with faint praise. Next Best Picture called it “the best fighting game adaptation yet” but still noted that wasn’t a high bar and gave the film a six out of ten. Consequence says Street Fighter “operates like a deranged live-action cartoon” and notes how “critiquing its fundamental filmmaking flaws feel like missing the point on an epic scale.” Even TheWrap got on the same wavelength of the movie, writing: “I’m not sure Street Fighter meets any conventional standard of quality, but it’s undeniably its own thing.”
The bright side for a franchise hopeful movie like the new Street Fighter is that, to a certain extent, it’s kind of a “critic-proof” movie. Fans of the fighting games have been waiting a long time for a new take on the Capcom property that brings the title to life in a new way. That in mind, even if the reviews stay where they are (or get worse), there’s going to be an audience that still shows up this weekend no matter what.
Early box office tracking for the film (via Variety) notes the film was previously on track for a $30 million opening. Carrying a production budget north of $80 million, the film would need steady legs and a decent international showing to pull off a box office win. That said, 2021’s Mortal Kombat not only overcame poor reviews at the box office, but managed to get a sequel off the ground too. Hope remains for Street Fighter.