Noah Centineo and Andrew Koji in “Street Fighter.”
Rafu Wire Service and Staff Reports
“Street Fighter’’ opened with $31 million this weekend to lead all movies in North America, according to industry estimates released Oct. 18.
The third live-action feature film based on the popular video game series beat out Nathan Fielder’s documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, “You Can See Everything,” which opened with an impressive $15 million. That’s the second-best opening weekend for a documentary behind Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which made $23.9 million on its first weekend in 2004.
“Other Mommy’’ was third with $8.3 million Friday through Sunday in its second week of release, Rentrak reported.
“Whalefall’’ opened with $8 million, followed by “Sense and Sensibility,’’ which opened with $7.2 million.
Directed by Kitao Sakurai, who co-wrote the screenplay, “Street Fighter” is set in 1993. Estranged street fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury.
But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s game over.
The cast also includes Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoai, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Andrew Schulz, Vidyut Jammwal, Orville Peck, Olivier Richters, Hirooki Goto, Rayna Vallandingham, and Alexander Volkanovski, with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog and Jason Momoa as Blanka.
For a trailer and tickets, go to www.streetfightermovie.com.
Kitao Sakurai
Sakurai is best known for his collaborations with comedian Eric André, as the principal director of “The Eric Andre Show” (2012-23) and the writer-director of “Bad Trip” (2021), a hidden-camera comedy film. André also appears in “Street Fighter.”
Born in the Kinugasa district of Kyoto and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Sakurai was a child actor who made his debut at age 12 in the martial arts action film “Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back” (1995). He also appeared in the made-for-TV film “The Best Bad Thing” (1997), based on the book by Yoshiko Uchida, and Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” (1999).
He trained as a cinematographer and shot independent and short films in the early 2000s. He made his feature directorial debut with the low-budget crime thriller “Aardvark” (2010).
Sakurai directed “The Passage,” a short film co-written by and starring comedian Phil Burgers, which premiered at Sundance in 2018 and won prizes at the L.A. Film Festival, Aspen Shortfest, and Nashville Film Festival.
His TV credits include five episodes of the FXX sitcom “Dave”; the pilot and three episodes of “Twisted Metal” (2023); the pilot of the Amazon Prime Video series “Butterfly,” of which he was also an executive producer; and numerous commercials.
For more information: https://prettybird.co/us/talent/creators/kitao-sakurai/brand-content/