Mortal Kombat II and The Devil Wears Prada 2 were still too close to call Saturday morning, each estimated at $40 million to $42 million as Mother's Day Sunday loomed as the swing factor in the weekend box office race.
Friday's lead belonged to Mortal Kombat II, which opened with $17 million, while The Devil Wears Prada 2 entered the final day of the frame with box office sources expecting a 10% to 15% jump over Saturday. The weekend was projected to total $161 million across all films, up 92% from a year earlier.
That turnout would put the frame in line to become the second-highest grossing Mother's Day weekend at the box office in the post-Covid era, trailing only 2022. The holiday has often favored female-skewing films, which gave The Devil Wears Prada 2 an edge on paper as it played to a 76% female audience in its second weekend.
Mortal Kombat II had its own momentum. The New Line sequel had already added $8.9 million from 30,000 screens abroad for a global cume of $25.9 million, and its domestic run drew a CinemaScore of B and a PostTrak definite recommend of 72%. The film's $80 million production budget added another layer to the stakes, even with the weekend still unsettled by Sunday afternoon traffic.
By Sunday evening, the devil wears prada 2 box office question was not whether the film had enough interest to matter, but whether Mother's Day itself would carry it past Mortal Kombat II. Sources were expecting the answer to come from the last day of the holiday frame, and that made the close race the weekend's defining story.
