Based on the fighting video game series of the same name by Midway Games, Mortal Kombat is an American series of martial arts action movies. Threshold Entertainment, led by Lawrence Kasanoff, produced the first movie. Mortal Kombat, the first movie, came out in 1995, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the follow-up, came out in 1997. Game publisher Midway declared bankruptcy following the release of the two movies. After operating as independent Time Warner divisions for more than ten years, Warner Bros. became the parent company of New Line Cinema in 2008 and submitted a bid to acquire the majority of Midway’s assets, including Mortal Kombat. Threshold and Kasanoff filed a lawsuit in bankruptcy court in June 2009, claiming ownership of the copyright to numerous characters from the series.

On July 1, 2009, the bankruptcy court approved the sale of most of Midway’s assets to Warner Bros. subject to the intellectual property claims of Threshold Entertainment. After years of development hell, a reboot of the series was released in April 2021.