Is meme casting a viable marketing strategy in Hollywood?

Paramount's new "Street Fighter" reboot is making as much hype for its distinctive cast as its IP. Its success at the box office may be a case study in marketing through WTF acting.

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Five years ago, I was the last person you'd expect to care about a new "Street Fighter" movie. I had no real connection to the IP, only vague memories of the arcade game, and the quality of the past films gave me no reason to suspect that the franchise had cinematic stories waiting to be told. When Legendary, Capcom, and Paramount announced their plans to reboot the franchise, my investment in the project never went beyond professional obligations.

And then the casting announcements began. Names like Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, and even Jason Momoa seemed like easy choices for this type of property. But as the cast around them began to form, each name left me confused as to what the film's vision could possibly be. In Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes, you had two of WWE's greatest wrestlers - hardly the first wrestlers to try their hand at movie stardom, but neither of whom had previously broken through in Hollywood. Andrew Schulz is a shock comedian who's totally into the world of Joe Rogan and Kill Tony, while Eric Andre is an adult swimming legend who's on the opposite end of the popular alternative comedy spectrum. Then you add a gay music icon like Orville Peck and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson playing a boxer, and you're left with chaos. RELATED STORIES As major fall film festivals wrap up, Oscar race goes regional You Can See Everything, A24's Elizabeth Holmes documentary, earned $1.75 million in Thursday previews.

Approaching the film's October 17th release date, Street Fighter was one of the most anticipated films on my fall calendar. It was pure curiosity because I couldn't wrap my head around what an eclectic group of performers could do on the same screen. (I thought "struggle" was a pretty safe bet based on the film's title, but there aren't nearly as many as you'd think!) The end product is a mixed bag of highs and lows, but it's never boring—mostly because of the variety and visible excitement of its cast.

This begs the question: Is co-opting a meme Hollywood's next great marketing strategy? Endless ink has been spilled about the decline of traditional movie stars and how casting celebrities no longer guarantees box office success. For the past decade, most of Hollywood has operated under the assumption that IP is the new movie star – if you have access to the right legacy character, the person wearing the costume is just an added bonus. But we've seen diminishing returns for even the bluest of IPs... When a new Star Wars movie loses to Obsession at the box office, it's safe to say moviegoers are craving something new.

In a way, the new "street fighter" is far from both strategies. It's based on a recognizable IP, but the casting is so unique that you can't help but feel like you're seeing something new. You could compare the casting philosophy to a reverse "consumer," which assembles the strangest possible group of faces that polarize any audience to some extent.

While the film is set in 1993 (with prequels dating back to 1987), it does an exceptional job of capturing the absurdity of being alive in 2026. At times it almost feels like you're wading through an endless stream of ironic brand collaborations with every celebrity under the sun (although the lighting is much better). At times it feels like Our Existence proves the old idea that postmodernism inevitably gives way to pastiche, and few films have used it better than Street Fighter.

There are too many variables to judge the whole meme-casting-as-marketing strategy based on Street Fighter's success in gaming. It's still an IP that people already have relationships with (for better or better), and mixed reviews will definitely play a part in its success as well. But the film is already on pace for a $70 million worldwide opening this weekend — always a respectable start for a film with an $82 million budget. It's fair to assume that bold casting choices play a big part in that number.

While we're all looking for novelty in an increasingly saturated media landscape, the prospect of Orville Pack, 50 Cent and David Dastmalchian walking into a bar in full anime gear might be more appealing to some viewers than watching a new Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise movie. This sentence would have sounded like madness a few decades ago, but in the strange world of Hollywood in the 2020s, it might be even stranger.

Released by Paramount, Street Fighter is now in theaters.