The fighting video game series of the same name developed by Midway Games served as the inspiration for the American martial arts action movie franchise Mortal Kombat. Threshold Entertainment, owned by Lawrence Kasanoff, produced the first movie. Mortal Kombat, the first movie, came out in 1995, and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the sequel, 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. acquired New Line Cinema in 2008 and attempted to acquire the majority of Midway’s assets, including Mortal Kombat. Kasanoff and Threshold filed a bankruptcy lawsuit in June 2009, claiming that they were the owners of the rights to numerous series characters.

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.